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Yesterday’s discussions with Minister Tanner mainly focused on Austria’s strong involvement in EDA’s current and future activities, the need to drive defence innovation in Europe and the prospect of reinforcing EDA's role in supporting Member States in this area , the contributions the Armed Forces can make to the EU’s Green Deal policy, the follow-up on the conclusions and recommendations of the first Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD) presented in November 2020, the state of play in the PESCO implementation, the functioning of the European Defence Fund (EDF) as well as the preparations for the EU’s Strategic Compass to be approved next March.

A particular focus was put during these talks on two specific Austria-led projects in which the Agency is directly involved: - the Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Surveillance as a Service (CBRN SaaS) project launched under PESCO which, at the request of its participating Member States, is supported by the Agency since 2019 when a dedicated EDA project was established on this topic; - and the Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Reconnaissance Surveillance System (CBRN RSS) project, funded and implemented under the European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP), for which EDA has now been tasked to act as the project manager (see related news).

“I am particularly grateful for Austria’s very active involvement in the Agency’s work and, especially, for its leading roles in the Counter-IED area, where it hosts the European Centre for Manual Neutralisation Capabilities (ECMAN), and the CBRN reconnaissance and surveillance domain. Back in 2019, the CBRN SaaS project was the very first PESCO project for which EDA’s direct support was requested by the participating Member States, led by Austria. This served as an important signal and example which, since then, has been followed by the owners and drivers of four other PESCO projects. We hope that many more will follow in the future because the Agency is keen and ready to provide this kind of expertise-based support to its Member States.  I can only thank the Austrian authorities for their strong commitment to EDA’s activities and European defence cooperation in general, and encourage them to pursue on this path”, Mr Šedivý commented.

Austria’s Defence Minister Klaudia Tanner said: “Today I met the Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency Jiří Šedivý to discuss current projects and future cooperation between the European Defence Agency and the Austrian Armed Forces. EDA supports the EU Member States in developing and improving military capabilities through cooperation in the field of R&D. With its network and expertise the EDA is thus an important partner as well as an important instrument of the EU to support smaller member states in European defence cooperation. Austria has been an active and tireless member of the EDA since it began its work in 2004. With more than 30 projects, Austria is one of the most committed member states, ranking sixth next to Poland. For our Ministry of Defence, the PESCO project "CBRN Surveillance as a Service" has become a particular showcase project. It was launched in 2018 and aims to develop the use of unmanned ground systems and drones equipped with sensors to detect CBRN warfare agents in a timely manner. As an intergovernmental agency, the EDA plays a decisive role in promoting innovation both for Austria and other Member States. Concerning the future, we want to focus even more on cooperation and collaboration with the Defence Agency, for the safety of the population in Austria as well as in Europe as a whole”.

Industry event

Today 11 January, Mr Šedivý will meet with the CEO of the Austrian Defence & Security Industry (ASW), Reinhard Marak, and other industry representatives and participate in an industry event.

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EDA has taken over the role of project manager of the Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Surveillance Reconnaissance Surveillance System (CBRN RSS) project which is being funded and implemented under the European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP).  

The decision was made following a request by Austria on behalf of the four Member States participating in a related PESCO project, the Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Surveillance as a Service (CBRN SaaS) project, which is already supported by EDA since 2019. In this new role, the Agency will not only manage all CBRN RSS implementation activities with the consortium, but also interact with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS) in relation to this project.

With the aim of targeting capability development through the support of innovation and competitiveness of the Union’s defence industry, the EDIDP 2020 calls for proposals, of which CBRN RSS was part of, sought to fund 26 projects from an array of defence domains with a broad geographical coverage. Since the first call in 2019, the EDIDP has shown its success becoming a strategic enabler for Europe’s defence. 

From PESCO to Category B CBRN SaaS project

The CBRN project area can be traced back to 2019 when, for this first time, EDA was chosen to support the CBRN SaaS PESCO project. This decision resulted in the establishment of a so-called ‘Category B’ project within the Agency with four Member States participating (Austria, Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia). Under this new establishment, and as requested by the participants EDA further developed the project with the signature of a contract with the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) as the consortium leader. The aim of the CBRN SaaS project, within the EDA framework, is to develop a technological demonstrator to deliver a recognised CBRN picture that will enhance knowledge-based decision-making for operations. The main deliverable will achieve the Initial Operational Capability of the PESCO project, which is aimed to be attained by the mid-2024. 

From CBRN SaaS to CBRN RSS

In the meantime, a new opportunity arose to even further develop the CBRN SaaS.  Indeed, in 2020, AIT used the EDIDP calls to submit a proposal for expanding the project into a Reconnaissance Surveillance System. With success, because in July 2021,  the CBRN RSS proposal was accepted as eligible. In addition, an EDIDIP Grant Agreement was signed in December 2021 between DG DEFIS and the respective industry consortium – represented by AIT as the consortium leader. Even though CBRN SaaS and CBRN RSS are implemented through different channels (EDIDP and EDA respectively), they are complementary and aligned in such a way that the contract under EDA’s Category B project is set to deliver a basic version of the technological demonstrator, while an enhanced version will be provided by the EDIDP project. In practice, this means that at the end, only one single technological demonstrator will be assembled. The main difference between both projects is therefore the funding schemes under which they fall. Timewise, both projects aim at achieving their expected results by  mid- 2024. 

EDA as project manager

The fact that EDA has been tasked to also manage the CBRN RSS project is testament to the participating Member States’ confidence in the Agency, but it also reflects EDA’s commitment and persistence to further support Member States in developing their capability spectrum. The RSS project will take its first step with the kick-off meeting between the European Commission, Industry Consortium, Member States, and EDA on 13 January.

EDA’s role as project manager of the CBRN RSS EDIDP project is envisaged within two different spheres. On the one hand, and within the EDIDP overall project, EDA will act as the primary interface between Member States, the industry consortium, the European Commission, and third parties. This task will also see EDA  overseeing the implementation of the project on behalf of the participating Member States, including the supervision and validation of work packages as well as the management of schedules. On the other hand, EDA has also been tasked to act as the Programme Security Instruction (PSI) custodian within the security framework of the EDIDP project, which requires not only the coordination of requests by Member States, but also ensuring the compliance of the PSI provisions.

The new project manager role confirms EDA’s willingness to break new ground and take on new functions and responsibilities wherever it helps to bring forward collaborative European defence capability development. 

 

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