Airbus and Friends Team Up to Shoot Down Ballistic Missiles in Space
Europe got tired of waiting for American missile tech and decided it’s finally time to build its own space-based ballistic interceptor.
Big European defense heavyweights like Airbus, Thales, Safran, MBDA Deutschland, and aerospace startup Destinus just signed a deal in Paris to form Bliksem EXO.
The goal is to build an interceptor capable of obliterating medium and intermediate-range ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere, right in outer space, long before they start plunging down toward European cities.
Russia's war against Ukraine gave the continent an abrupt wake-up call about how gaping its air defense holes really are. American Patriot batteries are fantastic, but they are expensive, hard to get in large numbers, and tied to Washington politics.
The consortium wants to run its first exo-atmospheric warhead test in space by 2027.
There is, of course, the classic European caveat: this letter of intent does not actually legally obligate anyone to buy the system or pour concrete cash into it just yet.
Designing an orbital shield against ballistic missiles is a bold move, especially when nobody has formally promised to pay the bill.
Source: Reuters
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