MdCN Cruise Missile Successfully Launched For Second Time

France's defence procurement agency, the Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA) successfully carried out the second qualification firing of the Missile de Croisière Naval (Naval cruise missile, MdCN) on April 8, 2014.

This test, carried out from DGA’s missiles test center at Biscarosse, in the Landes district, was representative of a firing from a frigate. It notably demonstrated the missile’s flight performance at high altitude.

This latest success, which once again confirms the missile’s high technological content, is the result of close and coordinated efforts by several government agencies (notably DGA quality control and test center teams, and French navy) and industry (MBDA France).

The MdCN cruise missile will be deployed on the French navy’s FREMM multi-mission frigates from late 2014, and on the Barracuda-class nuclear attack submarines from 2018.

Having a range of several hundred kilometers, the MdCN is designed to engage targets located deep inside enemy territory. It complements the Scalp air-launched cruise missile from which it is derived.

Arming combat ships deployed in international waters, at safe stand-off distances, either overtly (frigates) or covertly (submarines), the MdCN is intended to allow engagement and destruction of infrastructure targets having a high strategic value.

DGA had awarded the MdCN contract to MBDA in late 2006.