MBDA has received a contract notification for the supply of SAPHIR-M decoy systems to provide self defence on the 24 Tiger HAD attack helicopters ordered by Spain from Eurocopter in December 2005.

The contract has been awarded to MBDA by Indra Sistemas, the prime contractor responsible for integrating the Self Protection Suite onto the Spanish Tiger.

MBDA’s SAPHIR-M self protection decoy system provides protection against the full threat spectrum, particularly against the infrared and electromagnetic threat. The system can operate in either automatic or semiautomatic mode in conjunction with Indra Sistemas ALR-400 and EADS MILDS AN-AAR 60 missile detectors.

SAPHIR-M has also been selected for the German, Australian and French Tiger fleets as well as for the European and export NH90 helicopters.

The European leader in aircraft self defence, MBDA has already equipped around 1,000 air platforms to date with its decoy systems.

With industrial facilities in four European countries and within the USA, MBDA has an annual turnover of €2.6 billion and an order book of €12 billion. With more than 90 armed forces customers in the world, MBDA is a world leader in missiles and missile systems.

MBDA is the only group capable of designing and producing missiles and missile systems that correspond to the full range of current and future operational needs of the three armed forces (land, sea and air). In total, the group offers a range of 45 missile systems and countermeasures products already in operational service and more than 15 others currently in development.