Thundart

Thundart is the MBDA-Safran guided rocket-artillery system selected in June 2026 as France's sovereign FLP-T choice to replace the aging LRU, offering roughly 150 km of ITAR-free precision deep-strike range.

Overview

Thundart is a French guided rocket-artillery program built around a 150 km surface-to-surface precision rocket and a wheeled multiple-launch system, developed jointly by missile house MBDA and aerospace-defense group Safran. On 15 June 2026, at the opening of the Eurosatory defense show near Paris, French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin announced that France had entered exclusive negotiations with the MBDA-Safran consortium to supply the system, as reported by Defense News. The decision named Thundart as the preferred solution under the FLP-T program (Frappe Longue Portée Terrestre, or Land Long-Range Fires), France's effort to replace its aging Lance-Roquettes Unitaire (LRU) launchers with a domestically controlled deep-strike capability.

Thundart matters less for what it has done — it is a program-stage system, not yet in service — than for what it represents: a sovereign, ITAR-free alternative to the U.S.-made HIMARS and other imported rocket artillery. France rejected off-the-shelf bids from Lockheed Martin (HIMARS), Hanwha Aerospace (Chunmoo) and Elbit Systems (PULS), plus a rival French offer from ArianeGroup and Thales, to keep a national industrial base. The system would give corps-level commanders a strike layer between tube artillery and air-launched weapons — a capability French Army leaders call one of their biggest gaps.

Development

The FLP-T requirement was launched in 2023 by France's defense-procurement agency, the DGA, to replace the LRU by the end of the decade. Two French consortia competed: MBDA-Safran, with Thundart, and ArianeGroup-Thales, whose rocket is reported as the FLPt-150 fired from a Thales-Soframe launcher called X-Fire. MBDA and Safran first presented Thundart in mockup form at Eurosatory 2024, roughly 18 months after design work began, according to Army Recognition.

The Thundart munition made its first test firing on 14 April 2026 at the DGA Essais Missiles range on Île du Levant, off France's southern coast; the competing ArianeGroup-Thales rocket followed roughly two weeks later, per Defence24. That firing, weeks before the decision, gave the MBDA-Safran team a demonstrated flight ahead of Vautrin's announcement. It replaces a small, aging fleet: France fields only nine remaining LRU launchers with the 1st Artillery Regiment — an M270 MLRS derivative — with four others transferred to Ukraine in 2022-23 and the rest due for withdrawal by the end of 2027, according to Defence24 and The War Zone.

🔒 The rest of the Thundart file is for BattlePolicy Pro members. Stop here and you miss what actually matters: the full capability and performance detail, the operational and combat record, how it stacks up head-to-head against its real counterparts, the complete specifications, and our analysts' procurement, supplier and assessment notes. Unlock the full file with BattlePolicy Pro →