European missile manufacturer MBDA has unveiled FastTrack, an AI-assisted mission-planning system designed to reduce the time required to generate cruise missile flight plans from hours to just a few minutes. The system was demonstrated during the Eurosatory defense exhibition in Paris as part of MBDA’s new Land Cruise Missile (LCM) program.

While the software was showcased alongside MBDA’s next-generation Naval Cruise Missile-Land Cruise Missile (NCM-LCM) Mk2, its significance lies in its potential it compress one of the most time-consuming steps in long-range precision strikes.

Why missile route planning matters

According to demonstrations reported by European Defense Review (EDR), planning a modern cruise missile mission involves far more than simply entering target coordinates.

Mission planning must account for terrain, weather conditions, known enemy air-defense locations, radar coverage, target type, weapon availability, and the desired timing of impact. Cruise missiles are typically programmed to fly at very low altitudes, weaving around mountains and other terrain features to remain hidden from radar while avoiding known air-defense systems.

For coordinated strikes involving multiple missiles, militaries must also ensure each weapon reaches its target within seconds of the others, maximizing the chances of overwhelming enemy defenses.

Developing these flight paths requires specialized planning centers and can take several hours or even days for particularly complex missions.

AI evaluates thousands of possible routes

During the Eurosatory demonstration, operators simply entered the target’s location and mission parameters. The software then combined intelligence on enemy air defenses with terrain and weather data before generating several possible flight paths.

Rather than producing a single answer, the AI ranked multiple routes and presented the operator with the best options. One of the more unusual features shown during the demonstration was a “stealth ness” indicator. 

Instead of measuring the missile’s radar cross-section, the system estimated the percentage of the flight during which the missile would remain screened from enemy sensors by exploiting terrain masking and low-altitude flight. According to EDR, the simulated missions typically achieved values between 75 and 85 percent. Mission plans were generated within minutes.

Simulating a real battlefield

MBDA demonstrated FastTrack using three different operational scenarios. The first involved a time-sensitive target. A train stopped at a station, where rapid mission planning was critical.

The second focused on a hardened command post, requiring the software to optimize both the attack direction and the simultaneous arrival of multiple cruise missiles. The third scenario highlighted how AI could support more complex strike packages.

According to Defence Express and EDR, planners simulated a strike against a target nearly 1,000 kilometers away. A forward-positioned enemy air-defense system reduced the estimated mission success rate to below 50 percent because the missile’s planned route could not avoid detection.

Rather than abandoning the mission, the software incorporated approximately 30 Deluge expendable drones, previously known as the One Way Effector. Their role was not necessarily to destroy the air-defense system outright but to saturate it, forcing it to expend its interceptor missiles before the cruise missiles arrived.

Once the drones were introduced into the simulation, the estimated mission success probability increased to more than 80 percent.

Compressing the kill chain

Modern militaries increasingly emphasize shortening the “sensor-to-shooter” timeline. The period between identifying a target and engaging it.

According to MBDA’s demonstration, mission planning can now occur while a launcher is moving into position. Because the company’s ground-based LCM launcher takes roughly 15 minutes to deploy, a complete strike plan could already be in place by the time the launcher is ready to fire.

As long-range precision weapons become central to modern warfare, reducing mission planning from hours to minutes could prove just as valuable as extending missile range or improving accuracy.

Rather than replacing human operators, FastTrack appears designed to give commanders multiple optimized options almost immediately, allowing them to respond more quickly to fleeting targets and rapidly changing battlefield conditions.

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