Europe's MBDA lines up relationships with Australian firms PARIS, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- European missile manufacturer MBDA has opened an office in Australia and is developing a local supply chain to support current and future Asia-Pacific operations. The office is located in Canberra, the nation's capital. Memorandums of understanding have been signed with Advanced Composite Structures Australia, Associated Electronic Services, Daronmont Technologies, Nova Systems and Pennant Australasia. More are on the way, the company said. "We are looking at the potential of expanding our industrial activities in Australia and this will require a network of industrial partners with whom we can work to provide through-life solutions for certain products that we feel are highly relevant to Australia's current and future requirements," said Andy Watson, who is heading up the Canberra office. MBDA's fire-and-forget CAMM missile for naval and land-based air defense has great potential in the Asia-Pacific region, especially given the missile's suitability for the widely used MK 41 naval launch system. The MK 41 currently equips nearly 60 ships in this region, a figure which includes ships within the Royal Australian Navy, so our future customer base could see increasing levels of support work needing to be carried out in Australia. MBDA said it has made contact with academic bodies carrying out research into next generation products, including the Institute for Photonics and Sensing at the University of Adelaide.