>>12518398Vega is an Italian ICBM made for French Navy with ESA decal and an extra upper stage
Ariane 5 is basically mini SLS that isn't completely terrible, although still rather expensive
Ariane 6 is attempt at making it cheaper by half and would have been somewhat competitive with Falcon 9 (if only for geostationary sats) had they made it 5 years ago
As for the future, they realized Ariane 6 is really behind the curve and won't cut it
So they are attempting to rush methalox Falcon 9 knock-off (Themis) and fix how bloated and inefficient their organization is to remain at least somewhat competitive
I don't think they will catch up any time soon, but at least they trying
