MBDA and the Gaza genocide

25 juli 2025

Mid-July the Guardian reported the involvement of European missile producer MBDA in the production of Boeing GBU-39 bombs delivered to Israel. MBDA is selling key components in the form of so-called Diamond Back wings, used to guide the bombs to their targets. The components are produced by the company’s Alabama branch, but developed by former UK-Italian Joint Venture Alenia Marconi Systems. They “have been shipped in their thousands to Israel and used in multiple airstrikes where research indicates Palestinian children and other civilians were killed” according to the Guardian. The bombs were delivered by the US, but income for these parts did flow through MBDA UK, which transferred the income to the French headquarters of the MBDA group, the Guardian concluded.

MBDA is a European multinational corporation developing and manufacturing missiles and related systems. It is based near Paris and was founded in December 2001 as the result of a merger between French Aérospatiale Matra Missiles, the Anglo-French Matra BAe Dynamics and the missile division of the Italian Alenia Marconi Systems (a joint venture between BAE Systems and Finmeccanica). These businesses were subsidiaries of EADS (now called Airbus), Bae Systems and Finmeccanica (now Leonardo), and all three remain MBDA’s parent companies until today. MBDA currently employs around 18,000 people worldwide.

There is also an address of MBDA in the Netherlands. It is a letterbox company called MBDA B.V. with zero employees and based at the trust company Trustmoore Netherlands. It is a financial holding, according to the Chamber of Commerce (CoC, Kamer van Koophandel (KvK) in Dutch) and established in 1996. Compared to an earlier record of 2016 not much has changed; MBDA B.V. went from Amsterdam, to Rotterdam, and back to Amsterdam, from the Freeland Groep to Trustmoore, but still falls under the same authorized representative.

Obviously, MBDA has a Dutch entity only for financial reasons (like the Dutch company-friendly undisclosed rulings made with Dutch tax authorities). It may or may not have been active in the Diamond Back/US/Israel operation. It is just one more company involved in military deliveries to Israel with a presence in the Netherlands (under control of major staff members of the companies, the MBDA CEO included).

The board of MBDA B.V. is nowadays filled with hotshots from the French, German, Italian, and UK military industry like Eric Eugene Albert Béranger (CEO of MBDA), Lorenzo Mariani (MBDA), Jean-Brice Dumont and Micheal Siegfried Schollhorn (both from Airbus), Manlio Cuccaro (formerly Leonardo), Elena Napolitano (currently Leonardo), Gareth Jeffrey Edwards and Sara Louise Hoiles Wallwork (both of Bae Systems), and Simon Richard Barnes, former director of European Aerosystems Ltd. (c/o Bae Systems at Farnborough). They all started in their position between March 2023 and April 2025, except for Eric Béranger who is on the board since June 2019. Together they represent MBDA and all its companies producing missiles and other high technological weapon systems.

Information on concern relations of the Dutch entity as registered in the Dutch CoC is not publicly accessible (see screen print) so it remains unclear where a Holding originates. However according to the 2016 record of the CoC, Dutch MBDA started as Matra BAE Dynamics B.V. (28-10-1996-18-12-2001). At that time is was thus the financial holding of the UK French company which became part of MBDA in 2001 and was owned by MATRA Defense S.A., a company which due to the consolidation process in the European military industry at that time became part of MBDA. So MBDA B.V. is part of the company even since before the start.

The UK information is also limited. A large share of MBDA’s income comes from non-European relations (38%), maybe MBDA US but not necessarily so. The published Start and End of Year figures are not very informative as they give no clue what happened in between those dates.

This complexity and internationalisation of companies has several advantages to sellers of weapons and weapon components, which is for example made clear by the fact that while the UK government decided to pause some arms shipments to Israel, this policy only applied “to military equipment exported from Britain, which means the US arm of MBDA can continue supplying Boeing from its Alabama factory,” as Juliette Garside, Manisha Ganguly and Ariane Lavrilleux summarize in The Guardian article. In an increasingly intertwined military industry, this is a challenge for arms export control.

The complexity of international businesses works like an invisibility cloak for the exact operations. MBDA has daughters in countries like England, France, Germany, Italy and financial holdings in – amongst others – Ireland (MBDA Treasury Company Ltd) and the Netherlands (MBDA B.V.). However all this complexities cannot hide the fact that components have been sold to Israel. Nothing illegal, according to MBDA, the company “complies with all relevant national and international laws applicable to the arms trade in the countries in which it operates”.

MBDA calls itself a “specific and unique integrated organisational model in the defence industry” build around directors, CEO’s, national companies’ managing directors and other key stakeholders. This integration should mean that responsibility for delivering components used in the Israeli bombing of civilians is also the responsibility of the whole ‘model’. Whether it is happening from the US or the juridical responsibility of the UK branch. As Sam Perlo-Freeman, research coordinator at UK Campaign Against the Arms Trade said: “What MBDA could do if they wanted to not be complicit in arming Israel is they could sell MBDA Inc. We would support the UK government taking all actions that are within their powers to stop the genocide. Beyond an arms embargo, this includes sanctions on companies arming Israel, banning UK investments in such companies.”

MBDA is depicting itself as a bringer of security, but its bringing of misery does painfully catch the eye. The solution as worded by Perlo-Freeman can be copied for France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and the Netherlands. To stop genocide, stop participating in it, whatever the formal legal regulations. In the end, it is as simple as that.