France’s European Mistral missile order worth 500 million euros – ministry

PARIS (Reuters) – France’s defence ministry said on Tuesday that it could order 1,000 Mistral air defence missiles worth about 500 million euros ($545.6 million) as part of a joint purchase with four other European states.

President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that France – along with Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia and Hungary – had agreed to make the purchases.

Macron had added he had made some progress in convincing some of France’s EU allies to look at a more home-grown defence strategy, in contrast to a German-led effort to jointly procure air defence systems from outside Europe.

The Mistral air defence missiles are built by the company MBDA. Airbus and BAE Systems (OTC:) each have stakes of 37.5% in MBDA, while Italian company Leonardo has a 25% stake.

($1 = 0.9165 euros)