Defense Forces to Acquire Mistral Ground-to-air Missiles

France, Estonia, Hungary, Belgium and Cyprus are to jointly purchase Mistral short-range surface-to-air missiles, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday, calling for the strengthening of the foundations of European defense.

The Hungarian defense forces thus further strengthen their orientation away from the U.S. arms industry towards the French one. After the recent reports on the U.S. government’s refusal to offer a quote to Hungary on the HIMARS artillery system, the move comes as no surprise. The Hungarian air-force in particular is equipped with the the French-international aviation giant, Airbus’ H-145M helicopters, and more H-225M helicopters are on their way.

“This is a very fine example of sovereign cooperation between Europeans on a type of missile that is very effective and which has not been sufficiently covered up to now,” Emmanual Macron was quoted as saying during a speech at an air defense conference in Paris.
The five European countries have signed a memorandum of understanding for the purchase of “hundreds of Mistral missiles”, a presidential aide told the news agency, stressing that “this is the first joint purchase of this type of equipment”.

The Mistral surface-to-air missile is manufactured by the European multinational MBDA-Systems. The development of the device, based on the French SATCP missile, began in 1974 and the first version was fielded by the French army in 1988, capable of reaching targets up to 6 kilometers away.

Hungary is known to have fielded earlier versions of the Mistral short range air defense system, but the latest, M3 variant is a significant improvement as compared to earlier version in terms of range and performance. Launched in 2019, the latest version is capable of hitting targets over 7 kilometers away. The system is particularly effective against drones and helicopters.

Featured Photo: MBDA-Systems