{"id":31189,"date":"2026-06-05T11:05:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/31189\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T11:05:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T11:05:35","slug":"thales-conducts-first-live-fire-test-of-x-fire-launcher-for-french-lru-replacement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/31189\/","title":{"rendered":"Thales Conducts First Live-Fire Test of X-Fire Launcher for French LRU Replacement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/dronefront.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">&#13;<br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779972858_803_WhatsAppVideo2026-05-15at09.23.58.gif\" alt=\"The Drone Front\" width=\"1280\" height=\"539\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thales has completed the first live-fire tests of the X-Fire launcher, which it developed with Soframe and positioned to replace France\u2019s aging LRU (Unitary Rocket Launcher) systems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">X-Fire is designed with a versatile architecture that allows it to fire foreign ammunition on a transitional basis to avoid a capability gap while France develops sovereign long-range strike weapons such as the <a href=\"https:\/\/thedefensepost.com\/2026\/05\/13\/france-tactical-missile\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">FLP-T 150 tactical ballistic missile<\/a>, which completed its first test-firing in early May.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the test, the French launcher used Thales\u2019 68mm X-Fum training rocket, which has already been tested on the Tiger combat helicopter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe versatility of the X-Fire allows us to reconcile \u2026 the need for a sovereign ballistic munition by the end of the decade with the requirement capacity continuity as current Unitary Rocket Launcher systems reach the end of life,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thalesgroup.com\/en\/news-centre\/press-releases\/long-range-land-strike-thales-completes-first-firings-x-fire-launcher\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">said<\/a> Julien Assoun, Thales\u2019 VP of Vehicles and Tactical Systems, adding that the company is already preparing for production.<\/p>\n<p>French Long-Range Strikes<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">France launched the FLP-T (Frappe Longue Port\u00e9e Terrestre) program in July 2023 to seek a sovereign, long-range rocket system, as the remaining LRU systems \u2014 a modified <a href=\"https:\/\/thedefensepost.com\/2026\/04\/28\/m270-mlrs-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">US-made M270 MLRS<\/a> \u2014 in service with the French Army are slated for retirement by 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FLP-T includes plans to procure at least 13 systems by 2030 and 26 by 2035 to equip a battalion-level force.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Thales-Soframe consortium\u2019s X-Fire launcher is one of two leading candidates for the program, competing against <a href=\"https:\/\/thedefensepost.com\/2025\/10\/24\/france-thundart-deep-strike\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">MBDA and Safran\u2019s THUNDART system<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">X-Fire is mounted on an 8\u00d78 wheeled platform compatible with the French Army\u2019s logistics fleet. It features Thales\u2019 TopStar Smart Receiver GNSS anti-jamming receiver and the TopAxyz inertial measurement unit for positioning, navigation, and timing, as well as targeting and firing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thales also partnered with ArianeGroup to develop the FLP-T 150 missile with an operational strike range of up to 150 kilometers (93 miles).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; Thales has completed the first live-fire tests of the X-Fire launcher, which it developed with Soframe&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13059],"tags":[5,22500,22501,5455,22502,5719],"class_list":["post-31189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-thales","tag-france","tag-french-mlrs","tag-french-unitary-rocket-launcher","tag-french-army","tag-mlrs","tag-thales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}