VL Mica Air Defense System Gets Green Light

Released on Friday, December 23, 2005

The French DGA (Délégation Générale pour l'Armement) announced a highly significant contract as a first step towards the introduction of MBDA's VL MICA medium-range air defence missile system into the three services of the French armed forces. VL MICA is the vertical launch version of the Air-to-Air MICA.

The launch of this program by the French DGA coincides with significant interest already shown by several foreign countries in both the naval as well as the ground-based version of VL MICA, evidence of the maturity of this program.

Features of the all-weather, "fire-and-forget" VL MICA system include a 360� engagement capability provided by the vertical launch facility, high kill potential, as well as the availability of two fully compatible seekers, either RF (electro-magnetic) or IIR (Imaging Infra Red). Thanks to its integrated C2 (Command & Control) system, VL MICA has a multi-target capability to counter saturating attacks. The system is effective against all types of aerial targets.

French anti-air defense requirements capable of being satisfied by the introduction of VL MICA are: the protection of air bases and highly sensitive sites for the Air Force, the protection of deployed forces for the Army and for the point defence of major vessels (support and command ships, aircraft carriers) for the Navy.