Australia's NIOA to explore building MBDA's Deluge one-way attack drone at home

Australian defence company NIOA has signed a memorandum of understanding with European missile maker MBDA to explore manufacturing the Deluge one-way attack munition in Australia, according to Janes, Aviation Week and the Asia Pacific Defence Reporter.

The agreement was announced at the Land Forces 2026 exhibition, held in Perth from 6 to 8 October, where MBDA showed Deluge in Australia for the first time, Janes reported. The system is due to enter production in France in 2027, according to NIOA.

Deluge, previously known as the One-way Effector, is a jet-powered expendable drone that Aviation Week described as a loitering munition. It is designed for saturation attacks that use numbers to put sustained pressure on enemy air defences, the Asia Pacific Defence Reporter said.

The published figures give the weapon a range of up to 500 kilometres, a top speed of about Mach 0.4 from its turbojet engine, and a 50-kilogram-class payload. Both Janes and the Asia Pacific Defence Reporter cited the same figures.

MBDA designed the munition to be built at high rates in partnership with civilian industry and to take readily available warheads, including the casings of M795 155mm artillery shells, the reports said.

That link gives the deal a local industrial angle. M795 casings are being made by Rheinmetall NIOA Munitions, a joint venture between NIOA and Germany's Rheinmetall, at its plant in Maryborough, Queensland, under an Australian government contract worth 72 million Australian dollars that was awarded in June 2026, Janes said.

NIOA Group chief executive Rob Nioa said the Deluge munition was well suited to the current and future low-cost mass effect needs of the Australian Defence Force, and that the memorandum strengthened a relationship that began with cooperation on MBDA's Mistral very short-range air defence system.

The new agreement builds on a deal the two companies signed in November 2025 to explore domestic production of warheads for MBDA's Mistral missile family, according to Janes and the Asia Pacific Defence Reporter, which described MBDA as the world's largest missile manufacturer outside the United States.

Aviation Week reported that NIOA also signed a loitering munition partnership with US drone maker AeroVironment during the same show, as Australia seeks to expand domestic munitions production.

In a separate announcement carried by the Asia Pacific Defence Reporter, NIOA was named as one of five businesses progressing memorandums with the Western Australian government to become prospective anchor tenants of the Western Defence Forge, a proposed defence and advanced-manufacturing hub in the state. Rob Nioa said the company had invested in sovereign munitions capability for decades.

The memorandum covers only the exploration of local manufacture. None of the reports said the Australian Defence Force had ordered Deluge, and no production volumes, costs or timelines for an Australian line were made public.