DSEI 2025: MBDA unveils Crossbow – a new deep strike one-way effector

MBDA has unveiled a new ground-launched One-Way Effector Heavy (OWE(H)) at DSEI 2025, capable of delivering deep strike out to 800km to destroy tactical or strategic high-value targets.

Equipped to carry kinetic or non-kinetic payloads up to 300kg, the turbojet powered OWE(H) is designed to operate in highly contested electromagnetic environments and fly at high subsonic speeds. The OWE(H) will use AI image-based navigation allowing it to operate in GNSS-denied environments, MBDA added, which is currently at technology readiness level of 6.

The Crossbow OWE(H) is also designed to fit into a standard 20ft ISO-compliant truck, which could fit either a single or double OWE(H).

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The MBDA spokesperson said the company was “rapidly” moving towards demonstrations of Crossbow by Q4 2025 – a timeline of seven months on from the initial design phase. The company plans to have it enter production by Q2 2026. A launcher for Crossbow is also being developed, the spokesperson added.

The MBDA spokesperson confirmed that the demonstrations for the OWE(H) would be enabled by a customer and that it was in talks with several customers to facilitate and deliver a demonstration.

“We are ready to engage with any customer, whether it's from the export domain or domestic customer,” they confirmed.

“It’s about showing the fact that we have gone from piece of paper development through to a maturity of the system ready to conduct that demonstration firing in Q4. 

“It will be very much dictated by who is that customer that turns up first, who wants to have that demonstration,” the spokesperson explained.

Adapting production to deliver mass

The Crossbow OWE(H) unveiling follows on from MBDA’s launch of an OWE at Paris Air Show – although the spokesperson added that the two OWE products launched are distinct from one another, with Crossbow linked to MBDA UK.

To deliver the product at scale and allow for customers to access combat mass quickly, the MBDA spokesperson explained that the Crossbow would be manufactured via an “eco-system” of SMEs and prime companies across Europe.

It would also use military-off-the-shelf (MOTS) and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) technology with its subsystems to allow for greater flexibility and sustainability.

“As the threat is changing… we need to be able to adapt and to make sure that that physical capability remains relevant,” the spokesperson added.

In September 2024, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) launched Project Brakestop, with the core objective to deliver an OWE(H) which could be launched from a mobile platform.

While MBDA refused to comment on the project specifically, the spokesperson added that “in terms of [Crossbow’s] capability, we recognise that we have the flexibility within the system … in terms of its design and modularity, to meet pretty much any requirement laid down by domestic or export customer that is trying to operate in the deep and unable to deliver mass through that capability”.

The company has been heavily focused on ramping up production and investing in its missile product portfolio in the last year – with future programmes driven by lessons learned from Ukraine about the need for mass on the battlefield. The group plans to invest €2.4 billion across the group over 2025-29.

Shephard’s DSEI 2025 coverage is sponsored by:

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