On the 3rd of December 2021, OCCAR FSAF-PAAMS PD accepted the last munition ASTER from the original contract FSAF Phase 3. This munition, an ASTER 30 B1 Naval able to deal with high speed, manoeuvrable aerial threats, will be delivered to French Marine to ensure the aerial protection of the naval group. This last delivery occurred in the frame of OCCAR contract called FSAF Phase 3, which is the 1st contract negotiated and placed by OCCAR on the 12th November 2003 for a global value of 3 Billions of Euros in cooperation between France, United-Kingdom and Italy.
This contract and its 15 amendments included:
Production of SAMP/T systems and associated in service support
Production of ASTER 15 and ASTER 30 munitions for
Medium range air defence ground system SAMP/T (France and Italy)
Medium range air defence naval systems SAAM-FR, SAAM IT, PAAMS (France, Italy, United-Kingdom) and FREMM (France and Italy)
All in all, more than 1 thousand ASTER missiles for national protection had been delivered to the armed forces of the 3 Nations. This last delivery occurred simultaneously with the reception by OCCAR of MBDA offer concerning production of ASTER 30 B1NT, the new ASTER version able to deal with future threats, planned to be available around 2025.