The companies signed a letter of intent on Sunday to combine General Cherry’s expertise in small drones and Patria’s unmanned-technology expertise and defense-industry experience, which will allow them to jointly develop unmanned vehicles for Western European defense needs, they said in a statement on Sunday.

The announcement is part of a broader wave of European defense-industrial cooperation with Ukrainian drone makers. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in December announced plans to produce various Ukrainian drones in Germany, while Ukrainian UAV makers including Skyeton and Ukrspecsystems are partnering or investing in the United Kingdom to produce drones there.

“Unmanned defense systems are central to the future of defenses,” said Mikko Leino, Patria’s executive vice president for defense and weapon systems, in the statement. “The partnership with General Cherry further reinforces Patria’s expertise in unmanned defence systems and drone development.”

As part of the collaboration, Patria plans to start drone production in Finland, which would help build up Europe’s defense capabilities and support the Finnish firm’s aim to be an innovative product developer, the company said in a statement on Sunday.

“Our unique battlefield experience, combined with Patria’s technological capabilities, can help drive a fundamental transformation of the European and global security architecture,” said Stanislav Hryshyn, co-founder of General Cherry, in the statement.

Patria didn’t immediately respond to phone calls and emailed questions about the cooperation plans, including whether the Finnish company will produce existing General Cherry drone models or when Finnish production could start.

General Cherry produces a range of drones, including one-way FPV strike drones and interceptor drones, and the company says its products are in use with more than 200 military units across the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The requested appropriation funds include 250 million francs earmarked for down payments on short-range ground-based air defense systems and 650 million francs for medium-range systems, as well as 60 million francs for a medium-range radar and 10 million for drone-counter systems, the Swiss federal council said in a statement on Wednesday.

The advance payments are intended to ensure deliveries take place on time and allow training of operational procedures to begin, the government said. Switzerland plans to spend 1 billion francs on Diehl’s IRIS-T SLM for medium-range air defense as well as 800 million francs to buy the Oerlikon Skynex short-range system from Rheinmetall, according to the 2026 defense-equipment program.

“Hybrid operations and attacks from a distance pose the most likely threats to Switzerland,” the federal council said. “At the same time, the armed forces lack the necessary resources to adequately protect Switzerland from aerial threats.”

The tight international arms markets with “sharply” higher demand means production capacities are fully booked for years to come, with delivery times lengthening, according to the government. Arms makers also increasingly demand “substantial” down payments, and failure to meet those demands could delay urgent procurements by several years, the government said.

Switzerland said in March the country was considering buying a second long-range air-defense system, as delivery of previously ordered Patriot systems from the United States looked to be delayed by four to five years. The country said in June it would start negotiations with French, Israeli and South Korean manufacturers.

The French-Italian SAMP/T NG system produced by Eurosam and armed with MBDA’s Aster air-defense interceptor is considered the favorite for the second long-range system, SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen reported in June.

With the supplementary appropriation, the council “aims to secure production capacity and delivery dates at an early stage for the procurements approved” in the 2026 armed forces budget. The council said the financing is possible thanks to an improved fiscal outlook resulting from higher income tax revenues.

The council said it will be able to proceed with the advance payments as soon as parliament has made its decision, probably during the upcoming fall session.

The government additionally plans to invest 100 million francs in coming years to strengthen security at more than 60 military sites, including improved fencing, video surveillance, electronic access controls, and secure rooms.

The evolving security situation means “it is urgent to implement these measures quickly,” by early 2029 at the latest, and a decision next year would be too late to achieve that goal, the council said.

Dassault Aviation said it was moving sensitive equipment from a site closest to the wildfires to one nearer Bordeaux, with most workers staying home in line with instructions issued by the authorities. ArianeGroup had evacuated its affected sites, while the French Atomic Energy Commission CEA closed its military nuclear research site near Bordeaux as the wildfires approached.

The Gironde department of southwest France has been battling one of the country’s largest wildfires on record, with over 100,000 acres burned — an area roughly four times the size of Paris. The fires in recent days approached the cluster of defense and aerospace sites west of Bordeaux that represents one of France’s most important concentrations of missile, propulsion, combat aircraft, and military electronics production.

Dassault Aviation had to move “a certain number of sensitive equipment” from its site in Martignas and a logistics center in Cestas to its site in Mérignac and the local Air Base 106, working in close cooperation with France’s Directorate General for Armament and local authorities, the aircraft maker said in an emailed statement late Monday.

Satellite data on Tuesday morning showed wildfires remained active less than 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) west of Dassault’s Martignas site, which is the wing assembly plant for the Rafale jet, before final assembly of the aircraft in Mérignac.

NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System showed fires and hot spots west of Bordeaux were significantly reduced as of 9 o’clock in the morning local time, though authorities have warned that a new wave of hot weather with a peak on Wednesday, combined with near-record drought conditions, could cause fire activity to pick up again.

Employees at the Mérignac and Martignas plants are staying home, in line with instructions issued by authorities, unless they’ve been evacuated, Dassault Aviation said. Those still working are the teams necessary for the transfer of equipment and those in charge of protecting the site to help with fire-fighting efforts, the company said.

ArianeGroup is working in close cooperation with local and national authorities, and the company’s sites west of Bordeaux “have been evacuated, and all necessary measures have been taken to secure them,” the space-launch company said in an emailed reply to questions. The firm said it’s not commenting on security measures around its sites.

Satellite data as of Tuesday morning showed active wildfires around 12 kilometers west of ArianeGroup’s Candale site, where the propulsion units of the M51 missile stages are integrated and assembled, around 13 kilometers from the site of Saint-Médard-en-Jalles where the missile is fueled, and some 16 kilometers of the Le Haillan site that produces the company’s solid-propulsion systems.

“Whilst the unprecedented forest fires in Gironde are above all an environmental and humanitarian disaster, they also threaten sites that are of vital strategic importance to our nuclear deterrent,” said Etienne Marcuz, an associate fellow at the Foundation pour la Recherche Stratégique, in a post on the social media network X on Sunday.

Emergency services aided by local construction companies worked during the night of Friday to Saturday and throughout the day to clear vegetation and create firebreaks around a number of sensitive sites, Gironde department Prefect Sophie Brocas said in a press conference on Saturday.

Marc Vermeulen, the head of the Gironde department fire and emergency service, said that after protecting lives, the next priority is protecting at-risk strategic sites. The DGA has a missile testing site just west of Saint-Médard.

Thales said its site at Mérignac has been closed since Monday as a precautionary measure, in accordance with guidelines from the authorities. The company said it’s doing everything possible to safeguard its strategic equipment at the site and ensure continuity of its commitments to customers.

The Thales site sits across from the Dassault Aviation campus in the Bordeaux suburb, and supplies equipment including avionics systems for the Rafale as well as military helicopters.

MBDA’s Roxel unit has one of its main production locations in Saint-Médard, where it produces propellant, solid rocket motors and carries out integration work for rockets and drones, on a site shared with ArianeGroup. Roxel produces the motors for a number of MBDA missiles, including the Aster range of air-defense interceptors.

“Roxel is managing the situation and the necessary measures have been taken to ensure the safety of our staff and our operations, with the support of the relevant authorities and emergency services,” MBDA said in an emailed statement, declining further comment.

The CEA said its site in Le Barp southwest of Bordeaux has been closed due to the wildfire situation. After wildfires in 2022, the center put in place new procedures, provided additional fire-fighting equipment to the in-house fire brigade, and created firebreaks around the center, the government organization said in an emailed reply to questions.

The CEA Cesta site houses the organization’s megajoule laser, a research instrument used to create conditions of extreme heat and pressure similar to those produced by nuclear weapons, and part of France’s efforts to maintain the credibility of its nuclear deterrent without live nuclear testing.

As of Tuesday morning, satellite data showed active wildfires around 7 kilometers from the site, after the fire front got to around 4 kilometers from the CEA site over the weekend.

Pistorius’ comments amount to the first official response to a proposal by Macron at a July 17 bilateral ministerial summit to include Germany in the co-production of Europe’s only locally made long-range air defense system and alternative to the Patriot.

The German defense minister addressed the overture in a brief talk with reporters at a production plant operated by French-German-owned armored-vehicle maker KNDS in Kassel in central Germany.

Berlin is open to a role in SAMP/T “in principle,” Pistorius said, lauding the spirit of the French offer. At the same time, as a user of the U.S.-made Patriot ecosystem in the same distance and altitude defensive segment, he cautioned that eventually operating two different systems would be hard to conceive.

“On air defense, we’re arguing for European sovereignty, and we’re going to move forward on the famous SAMP/T new-generation system, with also a clear willingness from France to co-produce with Germany and our Italian partners in the new-generation SAMP/T,” Macron said at a press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday.

The response by Pistorius suggests longer-term cooperation on technology development for the SAMP/T system is also on the table — he cited “10 years or more” — compared with a more limited production offer. The benefits of such a scenario, in turn, would be interesting for Germany, Pistorius said.

“We should therefore take this offer seriously” and study all the relevant details, he told reporters.

An acute shortage of Patriot interceptors, partly due to the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran, have European Patriot customers on edge about spares and new production. The U.S. government has signaled that it wants to fulfill hardware requirements for American forces first, relegating some international production slots to the back of the line.

The situation has amplified voices in Europe calling for more sovereign capabilities unconnected to the political and military fortunes of the United States.

Pan-European missile maker MBDA has said it plans to double production this year of the Aster air-defense interceptor used in the SAMP/T system. The firm in October 2024 conducted the first test firing of an updated Aster 30 Block 1 New Technology interceptor designed to intercept medium-range ballistic missiles and hypersonic missiles.

Italy took delivery of its first SAMP/T NG in January, equipped with a Leonardo radar with an air-surveillance instrument range of at least 300 kilometers, while France received its first upgraded system in February, equipped with a Thales Ground Fire 300 radar that has a claimed range of up to 400 kilometers.

Ukraine said on July 14 it was planning to order four SAMP/T NG systems, with France committing to delivering them as soon as possible, with progressive deployment of modules as they become available starting in 2027. One Thales GF300 radar will be deployed in Ukraine by the end of 2026 as the first component of the SAMP/T NG.

While the new air-defense systems are being produced, France agreed to send Ukraine two SAMP/T systems what will be returned upon delivery of the new-generation systems, according to Ukraine, which said it would also receive a Leonardo Kronos radar and five Thales Ground Master 400 radars.

France and Italy decided to accelerate delivery of agreed Aster 30 missiles by October this year “to address the operational urgency,” while the countries also authorized licensed production of the Aster 30 missile in Ukraine before the end of 2026, according to the Ukrainian presidential office.

Ruitenberg reported from Paris.

The executives will start a handover process in October to ensure “a seamless transition,” MBDA said on Wednesday. The company didn’t provide a reason for the departure of Béranger, who has overseen seven years of transition during which MBDA nearly doubled its sales to €5.8 billion (US$6.6 billion) in 2025 and more than doubled its order book to a record €44.4 billion.

Dumont already sits on the MBDA supervisory board as a representative for Airbus, which owns 37.5% of the missile maker alongside BAE Systems with an equal stake and Leonardo with 25%. At Airbus Defence and Space, he has been head of air power since January 2024, and before that was head of military air systems from July 2021.

Dumont “will continue MBDA’s transformation journey and build on MBDA’s unique model to meet the challenges ahead,” the company said.

European governments including France have been pushing MBDA to accelerate a ramp-up in missile production, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Houthi attacks in the Red Sea highlighted Europe’s limited missile stockpiles and production capacity. Béranger said in March the company would increase investments for 2026-2030 to €5 billion from a planned €2.5 billion for the 2025-2029 period.

“I am honored to join MBDA at a moment where the group stands at the center of the defense of Europe and its allies,” Dumont said in the statement. “I would like to warmly thank Eric for handing over a group that has been deeply transformed, a group stronger and ready for the challenges ahead.”

MBDA says it already doubled missile production between 2023 and the end of 2025, and Béranger said in March overall missile output will rise 40% this year, a “very significant increase.” The company’s products include the Aster interceptors used in the SAMP/T air-defense systems, the Meteor missile, the Scalp/Storm Shadow cruise missile and the Exocet anti-ship weapon.

“When I joined in 2019, none of us could have imagined what we would be faced with,” Béranger said in the statement. “We stepped up to every challenge and MBDA is now more essential than ever to global peace and security.”

The company said Dumont brings extensive international experience in aerospace and defense after serving in various Airbus executive committees for more than 14 years.

He joined Eurocopter, the predecessor to Airbus Helicopters, in 2004 as an engineer on the NH90 program, followed by various executive roles in the Airbus helicopter and commercial aircraft businesses.

Dumont is a licensed French Army aviation pilot, and started his career at the Directorate General for Armament in 1996, working on the Tiger and Super Puma helicpter programs. He is a graduate of France’s elite École Polytechnique and of the ISEA-SUPAERO aerospace-engineering school.

MBDA is frequently cited by policymakers and industry analyst as an example of successful European defense cooperation. The company’s multinational structure allows France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom to share costs, expertise and industrial capacity, while also allowing the countries to preserve sovereign capabilities in MBDA’s local units.

Under Béranger, the company has “reshaped its portfolio to provide European armed forces and their allies with sovereign solutions, adapted to today and tomorrow’s threats,” MBDA said.

MBDA Chairman Simon Barnes said the board wishes Béranger “a promising new chapter,” while also wishing Dumont “full success in his new position.”

Destinus, MBDA, Safran, Airbus and Thales signed a letter of intent in Paris on Tuesday to set up the Bliksem EXO consortium, with the intention of entering a binding agreement within three months and starting joint engineering work in August, the companies said in a joint statement.

As Russia has stepped up ballistic missile output, Europe lacks its own system to intercept medium and intermediate-range ballistic missiles mid-course, before re-entry vehicles enter the atmosphere. The continent currently relies on two United States-operated Aegis Ashore sites that use the SM-3 interceptor for exo-atmospheric defense, while Germany is buying Israel’s Arrow-3 system.

“Europe has strong lower-layer missile defenses, but it still lacks a sovereign European upper layer against medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles,” Destinus CEO Mikhail Kokorich said in the statement. “Bliksem EXO is designed to close that gap through direct hit-to-kill interception above the atmosphere.”

The letter of intent was signed at the inaugural meeting of an anti-ballistic coalition announced this week, with Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten present.

Bliksem EXO is intended to defeat ballistic threats, including systems in the class of Russia’s intermediate-range Oreshnik with separating and maneuvering re-entry vehicles, the companies said. The interceptor system will be designed to detect, track and defeat MRBM and IRBM threats though a kinetic hit-to-kill impact, without an explosive warhead.

Destinus will serve as the consortium lead, responsible for the system integration and the exo-atmospheric kill vehicle, the companies said. The Netherlands-based startup currently develops unmanned systems, including the Ruta Block 2 cruise missile, as well as turbojet engines.

MBDA Deutschland will handle the interceptor booster, launcher and canister; Safran Electronics & Defense will provide the kill vehicle seeker and guidance, navigation and control; Airbus Defence and Space will work on command-and-control and battle management; and Thales will be in charge of the radar and sensor chain, from early warning to fire control, according to the statement.

The new interceptor system will complement existing and planned European lower-layer defenses, rather than compete with them, as it will operate above terminal and theater-level systems as part of a layered European missile defense, the firms said.

The program will be designed for full interoperability with NATO’s integrated air and missile defense and strengthen the European Sky Shield Initiative “by addressing the currently missing upper layer,” according to the companies. Germany has previously proposed Arrow-3 as the exo-atmospheric component of ESSI.

System design, testing and evaluation will draw on Ukraine’s experience in countering massed air and missile attacks, the firms said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Macron agreed on a roadmap between their two countries that also includes the acquisition of a first batch of SAMP/T NG air-defense batteries, complementing systems and their missiles to be delivered in coming weeks, Macron said. France will also provide radar systems and additional missiles, the president said.

The countries further approved licensing agreements for production in Ukraine of the AASM glide-bomb kit, the Aster 30 air-defense interceptor that arms the SAMP/T system as well as the SCALP/Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missile, Macron said.

Ukraine has suffered a shortage of interceptors to defeat ballistic threats, leaving the country with a gap in its air defenses as Russia has stepped up ballistic-missile attacks. United States President Donald Trump said earlier this month Ukraine would be allowed to manufacture its own interceptors for the Patriot air-defense system, though setting up local production could take years.

“Ukraine has immediate needs, particularly in the anti-ballistic area,” Macron said. He said the bilateral agreement is part of that, in addition to an initiative by Zelenskyy to create a coalition “that will accelerate Ukraine’s anti-ballistic defense in a very concrete way.”

Nine countries including France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Norway joined Ukraine in a coalition that will develop an anti-ballistic air-defense system, according to a joint statement. The system, called Freyja, will be centered on an interceptor from Ukrainian defense firm Fire Point.

Ukraine is also seeking to strengthen its air force and compensate for the loss of Soviet-era aircraft, agreeing in May to buy 20 new Gripen fighter jets, and with Sweden planning to donate 16 older models next year. The country has previously received F-16 fighter jets, which are being used primarily in an air defense role to shoot down Russian cruise missiles and Shahed attack drones.

The first Rafale jets are expected to fly in Ukrainian skies as early as 2028 or 2029, and training of Ukrainian pilots will start in coming months, Macron said.

Ukraine in November signed a letter of intent to buy up to 100 Rafale jets manufactured by Dassault Aviation. That followed a similar letter of intent in October between Ukraine and Sweden for the export of up to 150 Gripen jets, produced by Saab.

Munich-based Helsing raised the funding in a Series E funding round, with investor demand “significantly” exceeding the available allocation, the company said in a statement on Monday. The company remains predominantly European-owned after the fund raising, Helsing said.

The latest round raises Helsing’s valuation from a reported €12 billion in June 2025, and follows a $1.2 billion funding round for German defense-tech firm Quantum Systems this month that valued that company at $8 billion. Defense technology has been one of the fastest-growing areas of venture capital funding on the back of rising military budgets worldwide, and in Europe in particular.

“This latest investment will accelerate Helsing’s mission to develop and integrate entirely new AI platforms into the defense capabilities of its growing number of partner nations,” the company said.

Investor demand reflected strong and growing confidence in AI-driven and software-defined defense technology, Helsing said. The company’s valuation puts it among Europe’s most valuable defense companies despite having been founded only in 2021.

The German company’s offer includes the HX-2 strike drone and the Altra AI-enabled battlefield-operations software as well as concepts including the proposed CA-1 autonomous fighter jet, and the firm works with the likes of Rheinmetall, Kongsberg and Saab to implement its AI solutions.

Other mega rounds in Europe this year include the United Kingdom’s Kraken Technology, which makes autonomous vessels, and which raised $175 million this month in a Series B funding round that valued the startup at $1 billion. A mega round is shorthand in the investment industry for a fund raising of $100 million or more.

German unmanned-systems maker Stark raised €500 million in June ($570 million) at a reported valuation of €3.2 billion, while Finland’s ICEYE, whose radar satellites are being ordered by militaries all over Europe, raised €450 million in a Series F round last month. French defense-tech startup Harmattan AI raised $200 million in January in a Series B round led by Dassault Aviation that valued the company at €1.4 billion, creating the country’s first defense unicorn.

Helsing said new and existing investors participated in the funding round, including Lightspeed Venture Partners and General Catalyst. The company’s existing investors include Prima Materia, Accel and Greenoaks.

The company said its board remains unchanged with Daniel Ek and Tom Enders as co-chairmen, members Jeannette zu Fürstenberg and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation Gen. Denis Mercier, and co-founders Gundberg Scherf, Niklas Köhler and Torsten Reil.

The remaining year of the Hydis program will focus on advancing critical technologies to at least Technology Readiness Level 3, Europe’s Organisation for Joint Armament Co-Operation said in a separate statement on Friday. That level corresponds to experimental proof of concept.

Hydis is one of two European projects to develop a counter against hypersonic threats, competing with the Hydef program led by Germany’s Diehl Defence and coordinated by Spain’s SMS Sistemas de Misiles de España. The European Defence Fund plans to allocate €100 million ($114 million) for an endo-atmospheric interceptor as part of its 2026 work program, with only one of the proposals to be funded.

Completion of the final concept review is “a significant step forward in the development of a future European capability to counter hypersonic threats,” OCCAR said. The organization, which manages the program on behalf of France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, said the four countries validated “the most promising interceptor concept proposed by the Hydis industrial consortium.”

The interceptor will be designed to defeat threats including hypersonic glide vehicles, hypersonic cruise missiles and maneuvering ballistic missiles, and the concept was assessed against threat models developed by Italy’s research organization Centro Italiano di Ricerca Aerospaziale, France’s Onera and Dutch technology institute TNO.

The final concept review focused specifically on the terminal phase of interception by the kill vehicle, according to OCCAR, which said the program enters the next phase with a “clear path” toward technology maturation.

Avio worked on the architecture of the solid rocket motor propulsion, ArianeGroup and MBDA’s Roxel on the final interceptor stage control mechanism, and Lynred on the terminal infra-red sensor, according to MBDA, with the missile maker handling the integration into a coherent concept.

Thales provided performance data for naval and ground-sensor suite options, while GKN Fokker worked on integration of the ammunition into the MK41 naval launcher, MBDA said.

“This new milestone demonstrates the consortium’s full expertise in the fields of hypersonic and ballistic threats, backed by in-depth knowledge of air defense systems.” MBDA said in its statement on Friday.

The EDF has provided €80 million in funding for the three-year Hydis program, with the four partner countries jointly providing around €60 million. The largest share of EDF funds for Hydis has gone to MBDA, with more than €60 million allocated across seven MBDA entities in the program.

Meanwhile, Hydef has received €100 million from the EDF, and another €10 million from participating countries Belgium, Germany, Norway, Poland and Spain. Diehl is the biggest beneficiary of the European funding for Hydef, accounting for €34.7 million.

Hydef originally won the EDF competition to develop a hypersonic interceptor in 2022, with the European Commission funding Hydis as a second effort after objections from France and MBDA, which had already been working on hypersonic technology for years. MBDA presented its counter-hypersonic interceptor concept Aquila at the Paris Air Show in 2023.

Both programs are linked to the broader European project Twister to detect, track and counter hypersonic threats with space-based early warning and endo-atmospheric interceptors.

The equipment office of the German armed forces signed a contract with MBDA Deutschland and Rheinmetall Waffe Munition in June to develop the full system, from reconnaissance to target tracking and engagement, the companies said in statements on Thursday. The contract value is in the “mid three-digit” million-euro range, Rheinmetall said.

Several European navies are working on laser weapons, with the United Kingdom’s Royal Navy planning to fit the DragonFire directed-energy weapon on a destroyer by 2027, in work led by MBDA in partnership with Leonardo and QinetiQ. Naval vessels are particularly suited to deploy powerful lasers, as they can provide the physical space, electrical power, sensors and cooling required.

“The laser weapon system will provide our personnel deployed on naval vessels with a significantly higher level of protection, particularly when it comes to countering drones,” Roman Koehne, head of Rheinmetall’s weapons and ammunition division, said in a statement.

The laser weapon system from MBDA and Rheinmetall has a “very high level” of technological maturity, the companies said. The demonstrator has been deployed on the German frigate Sachsen, covering 28,000 nautical miles from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean, and firing over 1,000 shots at air, sea and land targets in more than a year of testing, according to MBDA and Rheinmetall.

The containerized laser effector will also be a cost-effective weapon for port security, MBDA Deutschland Managing Director Thomas Gottschild said. The system can focus power on an area measuring just a few centimeters, and has proven to be effective even in adverse weather conditions, according to Rheinmetall and MBDA.

The MBDA-Rheinmetall joint venture will place “particular emphasis” on German supply chains and local systems expertise to secure national sovereignty in the technology, the companies said. Serial production will “largely” take part in Germany, according to Koehne.

In other weapon-development news, the French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis said it tested its electromagnetic railgun outdoors for the first time in June, moving the system out of laboratory conditions. The institute will now work on higher energy levels and longer distances as a path towards a possible future deployable system, it said in a statement on Thursday.

Railguns use electromagnetic acceleration rather than chemical propellants to fire a projectile, and could provide a possible counter to hypersonic threats.

Meanwhile, Belgium said it will buy 20 of Rheinmetall’s Skyranger 30 anti-drone cannons as well as 14 Thales GM200 radars, in addition to a previously announced plan to buy 10 NASAMS air-defense systems from Kongsberg. The country is investing €3.1 billion ($3.5 billion) to build up a layered air defense system, after two decades of going without, Defense Minister Theo Francken said.