The European company MBDA, one of the great world leaders in the manufacture of missiles created by Airbus (37.5%), BAE Systems (37.5%) and Leonardo (25%), has presented its new land cruise missile or Land Cruise Missile (LCM), a precision-depth projectile launched from land platforms that was born to meet the needs of the new strategic environment on the battlefield.
The LCM is based on all of MBDA’s experience in the field of deep precision attack and It is based on the combat-proven naval cruise missile (NCM) in service on frigates and attack submarines of the French Navy.
The new system constitutes a unique European sovereign solution for a ground-launched and deep-strike cruise missile system, designed, produced and assembled in Europe. The missiles will provide additional strike capability to hit very long-range targets from the sea surface and from land.
Eric Béranger, CEO of MBDA, stated that this system “complements MBDA’s broad portfolio of decisive European sovereign solutions. Building on the track record of the naval cruise missile, the company demonstrates its ability to cover the entire spectrum of operational requirements of our customers while synergizing our entire deep strike portfolio to ensure battle readiness.”
The LCM system will offer the same unique capabilities as the NCM, including:
Metric accuracy at very long range; high survivability in penetrating enemy integrated air defence systems thanks to reduced radar cross section and terrain following capability; and high lethality against targets.
Also will enable high precision synchronized time over target (STOT) capabilityas already demonstrated by the simultaneous NCM attack from a frigate and a submerged submarine, carried out by the French Navy with the support of the DGA in April 2024.
With the LCM concept of operation, MBDA will offer a comprehensive integrated system that includes the mission planning suite and ground launchers mounted on dedicated ground platforms that offer flexibility, survivability and reactivity to ground forces in high intensity contexts.