On 14 December 2022 during a brief ceremony in Brussels, the OCCAR-EA Director Matteo Bisceglia, and the Director-General ‘Defence Industry and Space’ of the European Commission Mr Pesonen, signed the Contribution Agreements for two EDF Projects that OCCAR-EA will be managing under indirect management mode. The two projects are the European Patrol Corvette (EPC) and the European Hypersonic Defence Interceptor (EU-HYDEF).
The agreements were negotiated between OCCAR and the Commission in a very short timeframe, which is a strong indicator of the very positive cooperation between both organisations.
In his speech, the OCCAR-EA Director highlighted this good spirit and emphasized the objective that cooperation between OCCAR and the Commission should grow more and more in order to strengthen the European Defence Industry and to assist Europe in making its defence environment more independent from our strategic partner across the Atlantic.
The EPC will be a smart, innovative, affordable, sustainable, interoperable and flexible vessel designed to meet a wide range of future missions in a continuously evolving global context. Based on innovative and disruptive technologies, this program will strongly contribute to the European sovereignty in the naval domain, by strengthening the European industry, increasing cooperation, efficiency and lowering duplication in defense spending.
- 4 countries under the banner of the PESCO (Permanent Structured Cooperation) project (Italy, France, Spain and Greece)
- 6 countries involved in the co-funding (Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Denmark and Norway)
- 3 main European Shipbuilding Industries (Fincantieri, Naval Group and Navantia)
- 40 companies for maritime systems and equipment from 12 EU countries
On the 20th of July 2022, the European Commission finally approved the plans to invest nearly €100 million for the development of the concept phase of the European Hypersonic Defence Interceptor Programme, also known as the EU HYDEF. As war has regretfully returned to the European continent, this €100 million investment is the largest grant in a €1.2 billion investment round in 61 European collaborative defence research and development projects. The programme has a projected duration of 36 months. According to the EDF’s factsheet on the EU HYDEF, the main aim of the project is to develop an adequate European interceptor which is capable of achieving the highest manoeuvrability and capability to respond to high velocity threats from 2035 onwards.
The EU HYDEF is closely related to the Permanent Structured Cooperation’s (PESCO) Timely Warning and Interception with Space-based TheatER surveillance (TWISTER) Programme, which “aims at strengthening the ability of Europe to better detect, track, and counter air threats and missiles through a combination of enhanced capabilities for space-based early warning and endo-atmospheric interceptors.” The TWISTER programme is under the coordination of France, in cooperation with Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain (PESCO, 2022).
Follow us on our Telegram channel