Thundart Missile System: France’s Answer to HIMARS and Modern Warfare

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Thundart guided artillery rocket. MBDA & Safran

France has unveiled the Thundart guided artillery rocket, a cutting-edge munition developed jointly by MBDA France and Safran Electronics & Defense. This ambitious project, showcased at Eurosatory 2024 and detailed further at the 2025 Paris Air Show, is a cornerstone of France’s Feux Longue Portée-Terre (FLP-T) program—its long-range land strike initiative aimed at replacing aging MLRS systems and rivaling global counterparts like the U.S. HIMARS.

Origins and Strategic Context

The FLP-T program was launched in 2024 with a €180 million allocation under France’s Military Programming Act (2024–2030). Its mission: to develop a sovereign, long-range precision strike capability that can fill the gap left by the retirement of the French Army’s Lance Roquette Unitaire (LRU) systems by 2027. The LRU, France’s version of the M270 MLRS, has seen limited numbers and even donations to Ukraine, prompting an urgent need for a domestic replacement.

Thundart’s Technical Blueprint

The Thundart rocket is a 227 mm caliber guided munition with a planned operational range of 150 km, matching the U.S. Extended-Range GMLRS (ER GMLRS). A second phase of the program envisions a 500 km variant, potentially entering the realm of short-range ballistic or cruise missiles.

  • Propulsion & Warhead: MBDA, leveraging its acquisition of Roxel, is responsible for the rocket’s propulsion and warhead. Roxel’s experience with solid-propellant motors for GMLRS systems provides a strong foundation for Thundart’s development.

  • Guidance System: Safran contributes its proven guidance technology, adapting the INS/GPS system from the AASM Hammer precision bomb. This approach reduces development time and cost while ensuring high accuracy—even under electronic jamming.

Platform and Deployment

The Thundart is designed to be backwards compatible with the LRU, ensuring seamless integration into existing French Army infrastructure. However, MBDA and Safran are also developing a new 8×8 wheeled launcher platform capable of carrying two pods of six rockets each, doubling the capacity of a HIMARS and matching the M270’s firepower.

Air mobility is a key requirement, with the system expected to be transportable by the A400M Atlas aircraft. This ensures rapid deployment across theaters of operation, from European defense to overseas missions.

Competitive Landscape and Future Outlook

France’s Thundart faces competition from a consortium of Arianespace and Thales, as well as Turgis & Gaillard, which has proposed using Indian-made Pinaka Mk2 rockets in the short term. However, the French Ministry of Defense is prioritizing a fully sovereign solution, with the Thundart team already securing a national supply chain.

The development timeline is aggressive: the design phase is set to conclude by October 2025, with live-fire testing scheduled for April 2026. If successful, the first 13 systems will be delivered by 2030, with a total of 26 systems planned by 2035.

Industrial and Technological Sovereignty

The Thundart initiative isn’t just a matter of national defense—it’s a reflection of France’s broader ambition for industrial sovereignty in strategic technologies. By centralizing development within French defense firms, Paris is shielding its military assets from geopolitical friction and supply chain vulnerabilities. This national-first approach contrasts with multinational joint development seen in other European programs, signaling a preference for speed, simplicity, and strategic control.

Additionally, the collaboration between MBDA and Safran serves as a showcase for France’s ecosystem of high-tech defense innovation. Both firms bring decades of experience and world-class R&D capabilities, allowing for rapid prototyping and iterative testing that would be far more complex under an international consortium.

European Collaboration vs. Competition

While France is emphasizing sovereignty, the Thundart system exists within a broader European context, where interoperability and joint defense frameworks remain critical. The European Union has been pushing for greater consolidation of defense projects through mechanisms like the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) and the European Defence Fund. France has participated in these frameworks but often chooses to pursue parallel national paths where critical technologies are involved.

Still, there is room for alignment: discussions are underway about potential shared logistics, munitions standardization, and targeting data interoperability between Thundart and similar systems fielded by EU allies. If these efforts bear fruit, Thundart could enhance both France’s independence and Europe’s collective deterrent power.

Export Potential and Geopolitical Impact

France has already garnered interest from multiple nations in the Middle East and Southeast Asia for Thundart-like systems. As countries seek to modernize their artillery arsenals without depending solely on U.S. or Chinese systems, France finds itself uniquely positioned to offer a high-end, sovereign alternative with NATO credibility and fewer export restrictions.

Export success, however, will hinge on pricing, delivery speed, and demonstrated combat performance. The April 2026 live-fire trials will be critical not only to validate technical specs, but also to boost international confidence. A successful demonstration could catapult Thundart into the export leagues traditionally dominated by American and Russian-made systems.

Bridging Land, Air, and Space Integration

What sets Thundart apart from legacy systems is its potential to act as a node in an integrated battlefield network. With GPS/INS guidance resistant to jamming and compatibility with advanced targeting systems, Thundart rockets could be cued by drones, satellites, or forward observers feeding into a common command-and-control architecture. Safran’s existing work on optronics and advanced navigation may further enable real-time targeting updates, ushering in a more agile and adaptive long-range fire doctrine.

This aligns with France’s vision of multi-domain operations, where land, air, cyber, and space converge to create decision dominance. In this vision, Thundart isn't merely a weapon—it's a force multiplier across domains.

The Thundart project is more than just a missile—it’s a statement. It signals France’s intent to reduce reliance on foreign defense systems, bolster its industrial base, and offer a competitive export product in the global arms market. With modularity and potential compatibility with foreign launchers under consideration, Thundart could become a key player in NATO’s evolving artillery doctrine.

As the world watches the evolution of long-range precision fires, France’s Thundart rocket stands as a testament to innovation, urgency, and strategic foresight. Whether it becomes Europe’s answer to HIMARS or a stepping stone to even more advanced systems, one thing is clear: the future of artillery is guided, and France is aiming high.

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