Eurosatory 2026: Thundart selected as France's next generation rocket artillery

Safran and MBDA's Thundart MRL, displayed at Eurosatory 2026. (Janes/ Amael Kotlarski)

The Thundart rocket artillery system had been selected to replace the French Army's aging Unitary Rocket Launcher ( Lance Roquette Unitaire : LRU), French Armed Forces Minster Catherine Vautrin announced at the Eurosatory 2026 defence exhibition held in Paris from 15-19 June.

Developed by MBDA and Safran to meet the French Army's Land Long Range Fires (Feux Longue Portée-Terre: FLP-T) programme, the Thundart is a guided artillery rocket with a maximum range of 150 km. Capable of flying at speeds of up to Mach 5, the rocket follows a quasi-ballistic flight path for improved survivability and terminal guidance performance. It is fitted with a 100 kg high-explosive warhead fuzed for impact detonation. The calibre, weight, and length of the rocket were not publicly disclosed.

Safran is to provide the guidance and GPS/INS navigation system for the rocket, which is already used on its HAMMER series of rocket-assisted guided aircraft bombs. Lucie Baton, head of media relations at Safran, told Janes that the ability of the HAMMER (known as the AASM in French service) to operate in heavily global navigation satellite services (GNSS) denied environments in Ukraine had been one of the deciding factors in the selection of Thundart.

MBDA is responsible for the weapon's airframe, warhead and fuzing. Roxel developed a solid-propellant motor in under 10 months for the programme. The launcher will be mounted to a Scania 8×8 truck chassis fitted to a trainable mount. Each pod houses eight rockets. The Scania based transporter erector launcher (TEL) will feature a lifting arm to allow for rapid reloading. The launcher was developed by Scania France, CMAR and Esssone.