“As we further strengthen our partnership with Poland, our brand new facility will offer wide ranging employment opportunities for Poles, including engineers. It will also allow them to work on cutting edge European complex weapons technology,” MBDA CEO Eric Beranger said in a company press release.
MBDA’s new Czosnow facility: location, layout, and purpose
The European missile-maker opened its first industrial site in Poland in Czosnow, less than 20 miles northwest of Warsaw. The center comprises two buildings: a 900‑square‑meter structure and a roughly 3,000‑square‑meter building that includes office space, laboratory facilities, a warehouse and a storage hall adapted for the PILICA launcher, MBDA Poland general manager Malgorzata Kobylarczyk said at the opening ceremony.
MBDA describes the location as a “service and technology center” for its operations in Poland, explicitly built to handle multiple launchers simultaneously and to hold the spare parts necessary for servicing. The site is intended both to host maintenance activities and to act as a hub for technical innovation tied to MBDA’s work on Polish air‑defence systems.
PILICA+: the short‑range air defence program the site will support
MBDA framed the facility as especially important for the PILICA+ air defence program, which the company calls “one of the largest European short‑range defence acquisition programmes in NATO.” The PILICA family begins with a basic system that integrates a command post, a target acquisition radar, six fire units with twin 23mm cannons and Piorun missiles, and support vehicles.
The enhanced PILICA+ variant adds several advanced elements: iLauncher launchers equipped with CAMM missiles, a new generation Zenit‑MP+ automated command system, and the Bystra mobile radar station. MBDA also positioned PILICA+ as the “inner tier” of a layered Polish air‑defence network that includes the upper‑tier WILSA system and the mid‑tier NAREW system.
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End the scrambleDeliveries, numbers and the wider procurement context
MBDA noted that last November the first production PILICA system was handed over to the Polish Army at the 34th Air Defense Missile Squadron in Bytom. That delivered system is the first of 16 to be supplied to the Army under an agreement between the MND’s Armament Agency and the PGZ‑PILICA+ consortium.
A related item referenced alongside the site opening noted a Poland‑UK arrangement described as a $2.4 billion PILICA+ short‑range air defence deal, indicating the fiscal scale tied to the program in the source material.
International attendance and political framing at the opening
The ceremony was attended by senior Polish, British, Italian and French officials, underscoring the multinational aspects of the project. UK Minister of State for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard framed the site as both a security and economic investment: “At a time when Europe faces its most serious security challenges for generations, the opening of MBDA’s new site demonstrates that the relationship between our two nations has never been more important. Stronger Polish air defences means stronger NATO air defences, and that work is taking place while also backing jobs in both nations.”
Workforce plans and the immediate operational role
MBDA Poland’s general manager provided the clearest timeline for staffing: “Currently, 11 people from the Polish team are employed there, exclusively from the Polish team. The team will expand in late 2026 and early 2027, primarily by adding engineering and technical support to support all tasks and to ensure that the specialists and technicians from the UK responsible for the launcher can travel and have a suitable place to work.”
The combination of on‑site spare parts, warehouse space sized for launchers, and laboratory and office facilities places the center as a focal point for hands‑on maintenance, cross‑national technician collaboration, and engineering work tied to the ongoing rollout of PILICA+ systems.
What this means for Poland, MBDA, and the Polish Army
- Poland (civil workforce and defense authorities): The facility promises local employment and engineering opportunities, and places servicing capabilities inside the country to support the planned fleet of up to 16 PILICA systems under contract.
- MBDA: The center is positioned as both a service hub and a “hub of technical innovation” that MBDA says will help develop and sustain engineering talent in Poland while streamlining maintenance and support for PILICA+ launchers.
- The Polish Army and operational units: With the first production system already handed over to the 34th Air Defense Missile Squadron in Bytom and spare parts hosted locally, units can expect a nearer‑term servicing option as additional systems are delivered.
The new Czosnow site stitches a physical maintenance capability to a program that MBDA and partners are rolling out across Poland: a local team of 11 today, expansion slated for late 2026 and early 2027, the first of 16 systems already transferred last November, and an explicit role in sustaining PILICA+ as the inner tier of a layered national air‑defence architecture. The concrete next test will be whether the center scales as planned while the remaining systems enter service and UK specialists travel to work alongside the growing Polish team.
Source: Breaking Defense — European missile-maker MBDA opens first industrial facility in Poland
