German arms maker Diehl Defence aims to significantly ramp up the production of its IRIS-T air defence system to satisfy growing demand due to Russia's war on Ukraine, Chief Program Officer Harald Buschek said on Tuesday.
www.reuters.com
"He added that missile production was being tripled this year and would be further doubled next year, with an expected output of some 400 to 500 missiles from 2024."
It's rare we get to see production figures from European arms makers. So it looks like c200-250 per year is the current production rate, which has increased from c70-80 last year. Not a massive surprise from a brand new weapon system that had only just entered production. But given existing orders and usage in Ukraine its probably still not enough.
Can't imagine VL MICA is as high, and definitely not SAMP-T (Aster 30 Block 1 only). I suspect at present that it's between IRIS-T family and CAMM/Asraam family as the largest production volume SAM/AAM in Europe at present. With I suspect CAMM having a lead given Asraam VI production and the recent orders from Poland, plus large UK order's to fulfil (I'm guessing the other CAMM orders are yet to start, or small like the RNZN's). With the large naval orders from Canada, Australia, Pakistan and Italian CAMM-ER orders to come I suspect it will be the one to beat in the future. The ESSI initiative could lead to more IRIS-T orders, but membership of that does not guarantee an order.
It will be interesting to see which direction Spain goes....they're tied to Germany for SCAF and use IRIS-T as an AAM, they'll have to buy 9X for F-35 (or Asraam, which would be very unlikely) but came close to ordering CAMM-ER for the F110 Frigates in 2016. They've got some older NASAMS launchers but haven't fully replaced the Aspide/Spada 2000, and cost of CAMM will be lower than NASAMS Amraam based missiles. Whatever happens they're going to have a real mish-mash of missiles...IRIS-T, AIM-9X. Amraam, Meteor, Patriot PAC2, ESSM Block I and II, SM2-MR, SM1-1MR, Aspide....
Given the fact that IRIS-T is never going to be on F-35 it might be that the SAM variant is the only major production variant going forward. Suspect rate of production and delivery is going to be a decisive factor in procurement in the coming years. No-one can afford to wait 5+ years for delivery safe in the knowledge that a major war 'probably' won't start....