MBDA: Engineering Complex Weapons Systems for Modern Conflict

Modern conflict is evolving rapidly. How is the defense industry keeping pace? In this special bonus episode of The Third Angle in conversation, we visit MBDA's UK headquarters in Stevenage to discover how this European leader in complex weapons systems is meeting aggressive targets to cut program timelines by up to 50%.

MBDA employs over 19,000 people globally, designing advanced missile and defense technologies with more than 50 years of expertise. Host Paul Haimes sits down with Matt Beaumont, Senior Vice President for Mechanical Engineering at MBDA, inside their digital battle space facility.

Matt's philosophy is clear: "more haste, less speed." Cutting cycle times means maximizing valuable design time by eliminating non-value-added tasks. Operating in a single source-of-truth environment allows teams to work faster and with confidence, giving engineers time to get designs right with production and the entire value chain in mind. This approach has led them to double production output between 2023 and year-end, far beyond the industry-standard 10% annual growth. 

Throughout the conversation, one theme emerges: trust in data. Single source-of-truth enables parallel development streams where multiple disciplines work from continuously updating models rather than serial baseline handoffs, and it's the foundation for AI's future competitive advantage.

Find out more about MBDA here.

Find out more about Windchill here.

Find out more about Creo here.

Your host is Paul Haimes from industrial software company PTC.

Episodes are released bi-weekly. Follow us on LinkedIn and X for updates.

This is an 18Sixty production for PTC. Executive Producer is Jacqui Cook.