On Thursday, July 2, 2026, the French defense outlet Forces Operations Blog (FOB) published an interview in which the outgoing Commander of the Belgian Land Component, Major General Jean-Pol Baugnée, said Belgium is interested in acquiring new French Thundart multiple rocket launchers.
Photo: Safran
On January 31, 2025, newly appointed Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever presented comprehensive policy plans for his term in office by publishing the 209-page document Déclaration du formateur 2025–2029.
The document announced, among other things, plans to diversify platforms in order to achieve deep-strike capabilities, including through the acquisition of MLRS-class multiple rocket launchers, with counter-unmanned aircraft system (C-UAS) protection, an ammunition stockpile, and appropriate personnel.
Initially, Belgium looked at the PULS (Precise & Universal Launching System) multiple rocket launcher, produced by Israel’s Elbit Systems, as the geographically close Kingdom of the Netherlands had decided to purchase 20 such systems.
However, the previous Belgian government had tightened military cooperation with France as part of the expanded CaMo strategic partnership (Capacité Motorisée), announced on May 21, 2024, including in the area of joint military equipment procurement: 28 CAESAR self-propelled howitzers and 24 MEPAC self-propelled mortars on the Griffon VBMR wheeled armored personnel carrier chassis, out of 382 vehicles of this type, as well as 60 Jaguar EBRC reconnaissance vehicles.
Major General Jean-Pol Baugnée would see the further development of artillery capabilities in this direction, given that during the recently concluded Eurosatory 2026 international defense industry exhibition, held at Paris-Nord Villepinte near Paris, French Minister for the Armed Forces and Veterans Catherine Vautrin announced that the winner of the FLP-T (Feux Longue Portée-Terre) program for new multiple rocket launchers was a consortium made up of European company MBDA and France’s Safran Electronics & Defense and Roxel, which offered the Thundart system.
“Within this partnership, I would personally like to acquire the same multiple rocket launchers as France,” General Baugnée said during an exchange with his then French counterpart, General Pierre Schill. “I sincerely hope that we will be able to acquire the same weapons systems as the French Army,” he added.
After three years in command of the Belgian Land Component, he was succeeded on June 26 this year by Major General Gert Van Goethem. Baugnée himself will replace him as Belgium’s military representative to the EU.
By 2034, Belgium wants to allocate 418 million EUR to achieving long-range strike capabilities. However, there is pressure to accelerate the effort to 2030. Paradoxically, this is good news for the French side, as the Thundart system is still under development.
Thundart
The Thundart launcher was unveiled for the first time on October 23, 2025. At that time, however, it was presented on a heavy wheeled chassis with an armored cab visually similar to the French LRU (Lance-Roquettes Unitaire), the M270A1 MLRS variant it is intended to replace.
At Eurosatory 2026, a lighter Scania 8×8 truck chassis was presented, fitted with an Essonne Sécurité armored cab in cooperation with CMAR and Scania France. The launcher, equipped with two launch containers, each holding four rockets with a range of up to 150 km and a guidance system derived from the AASM Hammer modular guided bomb, is fitted with a rotating crane used to reload ammunition from an accompanying transport vehicle. The launcher is intended to be compatible with other chassis, with export customers in mind, as well as with the new ATLAS artillery battle management system (L’automatisation des tirs et liaisons de l’artillerie sol/sol), the successor to the ATILA system.
France must retire nine LRU launchers, as two were transferred to Ukraine. Earlier reports mentioned 13 launchers, while France originally operated 57 LRUs. Under current plans, the Thundart system is to be acquired by 2030, although it is no secret that the retirement of the LRUs will begin as early as late 2027. For this reason, MBDA and Safran planned the first live-fire trials of the new Thundart launcher prototype for mid-2026.