MBDA

At a glance

• The challenge

  Preserve decades of specialized engineering expertise and make critical information accessible across complex systems, national divisions and generations of employees.

• The approach

  Use Sinequa by Argonos to provide secure, unified access to technical documentation, engineering records and institutional knowledge.

• The deployment

  Connect distributed structured and unstructured information through an AI-powered enterprise search platform that respects existing access permissions and security requirements.

• The value

  Help engineering and program teams find relevant technical information, identify existing expertise and make better-informed decisions while maintaining control over sensitive data.

Customer Overview

MBDA is a leading European defense company specializing in complex weapon systems. Bringing together expertise across France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Spain and the United States, the company develops advanced defense technologies for European nations and their allies.

With approximately 18,000 employees and decades of engineering experience, MBDA operates in an environment where technical precision, information security and continuity of expertise are essential.

Its engineering teams work with highly specialized information covering propulsion, guidance, software, systems integration, testing and other critical disciplines. Making this knowledge accessible across projects and generations of engineers is an important part of supporting innovation and long-term program continuity.

Challenges

Preserving decades of critical engineering expertise

Like many established industrial organizations, MBDA has accumulated extensive technical knowledge through decades of research, engineering and program development.

Much of this information is stored in unstructured formats, including design documents, test reports, technical analyses, program records and correspondence. These resources are distributed across multiple systems, locations and organizational divisions.

As experienced engineers approach retirement, preserving their expertise becomes increasingly important. The challenge extends beyond retaining documents: MBDA needs to ensure that the next generation of engineers can discover and use the technical decisions, lessons learned and expertise developed through previous programs.

Connecting information across a multinational organization

MBDA’s international structure adds complexity to information discovery.

Engineering teams work across different countries, languages and technical environments. Relevant information may be held in separate applications, repositories or national divisions.

Finding the right technical precedent, previous test result or subject-matter expert can therefore require searching multiple systems or relying on colleagues’ personal knowledge.

MBDA needed a more unified approach to information access, capable of supporting highly specialized technical searches across its distributed information environment.

Maintaining strict security and access controls

In the defense sector, making information easier to find cannot come at the expense of security.

Technical documentation may be subject to classification requirements, program-specific restrictions, national security obligations and export controls.

Any enterprise search solution must respect these constraints, ensuring that users can retrieve only the information they are authorized to access.

Solutions

Unified access to engineering knowledge

MBDA uses Sinequa by Argonos to improve access to information distributed across its enterprise systems.

The platform indexes unstructured content and enables engineering and program teams to search technical information through a unified interface.

Rather than navigating multiple repositories independently, employees can retrieve relevant documentation and information from connected sources.

Search adapted to complex technical environments

Engineering information is highly contextual. Identifying the right document often requires understanding specialized terminology, program histories and relationships between technical records.

Sinequa by Argonos supports AI-powered enterprise search across technical documentation, helping users locate relevant design records, engineering analyses, previous test results and other information needed for their work.

This approach makes existing technical information easier to discover and reuse across projects.

Secure access across distributed systems

Security is central to MBDA’s information environment.

Sinequa by Argonos works with existing source-system access controls to ensure that search results respect user permissions.

By maintaining document-level access restrictions, the platform supports information discovery without granting users access to content outside their authorized scope.

This allows MBDA to improve information accessibility while preserving the controls required in a sensitive defense environment.

Supporting knowledge continuity

Beyond document retrieval, unified enterprise search helps organizations preserve the value of accumulated engineering expertise.

By making historical project records, technical decisions and documented experience easier to locate, MBDA can support knowledge transfer between experienced specialists and newer generations of engineers.

This is particularly important for long-running defense programs, where technical decisions made years earlier may remain relevant to current engineering work.

Results

Better access to technical information

Sinequa by Argonos provides engineering and program teams with a unified way to discover information across connected enterprise sources.

This helps reduce dependence on fragmented repositories and makes relevant technical documentation easier to locate.

More informed engineering decisions

Access to historical technical records, design decisions and previous program information helps engineers identify relevant precedents when investigating issues or evaluating possible solutions.

The ability to retrieve existing information supports more informed decision-making across engineering activities.

Stronger knowledge continuity

By making documented expertise discoverable beyond individual teams and employees, MBDA can better preserve the value of its institutional knowledge.

This supports knowledge sharing and helps future engineers build on work completed during previous programs.

Information access aligned with security requirements

Sinequa by Argonos enables users to search across connected information sources while respecting existing access permissions.

This helps MBDA balance the need for information accessibility with the strict security requirements of the defense industry.

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About MBDA

MBDA is a multinational European defense company specializing in complex weapon systems.

Created through the combination of missile activities associated with Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo, MBDA brings together advanced engineering capabilities across several countries.

Its teams develop and support complex defense technologies for European armed forces and allied nations.