rome march 27 reuters  the italian unit of european missile maker mbda almost doubled its orders last year and aims to keep them above the 1 billion euro 108 billion threshold in 2023 its country managing director said on monday the missile group is owned by frances airbus airpa and britains bae systems baesl both with a 375 stake and by italys defence and aerospace group leonardo ldofmi with the remaining 25 the acceleration is linked to a new attitude towards defence said lorenzo mariani who is also executive group director for sales  business development pointing to an indirect effect from the ongoing war in ukraine mbdas italian operations totalled just over 1 billion euros in revenues from contracts in 2022 against 685 million euros in the previous year according to a slide presentation at the companys italian headquarters in rome while italian prime minister giorgia meloni has pledged continued military support for kyiv mariani said less than a third of mbda italys 2022 orders were directly related to supplies related to the defence of ukraine earlier this month mbda reported revenues for the whole european consortium of 42 billion euros in 2022 with orders reaching a record 9 billion driven by a strong export performance the company is handling a backlog worth 223 billion euros including contracts with the united arab emirates qatar and saudi arabia mbda has some 16 of the global missile market in terms of orders and is the largest player in europe with a 43 share the company said mariani its top manager for italy is seen among the frontrunners to replace former banker alessandro profumo as leonardo chief executive sources have told reuters as the government prepares to make key appointments at statecontrolled firms mariani declined to comment on his possible nomination but said he expected the new leonardo leadership to treat mbda as a jewel as it is a great asset for europe and for his shareholders reporting by angelo amante editing by alvise armellini and peter graff