Seven EU Member States have placed orders with European industry through the European Defence Agency’s fast-track joint procurement scheme for 155mm ammunition. More orders, for instance for national replenishment purposes, could materialise in the coming weeks and months.
High Representative Josep Borrell, who is also Head of the European Defence Agency, said: “We have put an ambitious framework in place to support joint procurement of ammunition – to replenish stocks and to support Ukraine. The European Defence Agency played a crucial role in this endeavour. Several Member States are buying 155-mm artillery ammunition together, thanks to the contracts negotiated by the EDA with the European defence industry. More are expected. We need this for Ukraine, but also for the EU. Joint procurement is the best way to spend better more efficiently and effectively together. This is a new step towards a more coordinated and capable EU defence.”
EDA’s Chief Executive Jiří Šedivý said: “This is proof of the confidence placed in EDA and in European defence collaboration. Joint procurement is the best option to support Member States in purchasing ammunition according to their national needs or for Ukraine. It also sends a strong signal to industry, showing the EU’s commitment to the European defence technological and industrial base (EDTIB).”
The EDA’s fast-track for 155mm ammunition covers all-up-rounds and elements thereof (fuses, projectiles, charges, primer) for four different, modern firing platforms designed and produced in Europe (France’s Caesar, Poland’s Krab, Germany’s Panzerhaubitze 2000 and Slovakia’s Zuzana) and most used by the Ukrainian armed forces.
Nine framework contracts with industry are currently in place. The seven Member States’ orders, signed for both all-up-rounds and elements, are eligible for European Peace Facility reimbursement. EDA cannot divulge contractual details at this stage.
The EDA fast-track procedure for joint procurement was set up in record time, allowing for the tendering process to be simplified, and contracts finalised at short notice. It has been designed to reach the whole EDTIB, including both major companies as well as subcontractors, to provide Member States with flexible options and to speed up deliveries.
Three-track approachJoint procurement is the best option to achieve cost reduction through economies of scale and interoperability. The overarching EDA project arrangement has been signed by 26 Member States and Norway. Flexible and inclusive, it allows all EDA Member States to join the initiative.
EDA’s joint procurement efforts are part of a three-track approach to deliver more artillery ammunition and missiles to Ukraine, agreed by the Council of the EU in March 2023.
Through these three tracks, the EU is supporting Member States to deliver artillery ammunition and missiles from national stockpiles, to aggregate demand and jointly procure 155mm ammunition, and to ramp up the production capacity of the European defence industry.
EDA’s wider roleEDA supports all EU Member States in improving their defence capabilities through European cooperation. Acting as an enabler and facilitator for Ministries of Defence willing to engage in collaborative capability projects, the Agency has become the hub for European defence cooperation with expertise and networks spanning the whole spectrum of defence capabilities.
Member States use EDA as an intergovernmental expert platform where their collaborative projects are supported, facilitated, and implemented. For more details, please see here.
The European Defence Agency has overseen the final demonstration of coordination between aerial and ground unmanned systems in the detection of explosives.
During the demonstration, one aerial unmanned system and two ground unmanned systems, each equipped with different sensors, undertook a complete autonomous search to detect mock-ups of explosives and improvised explosive devices, including unexploded ordinance – both in rural and urban areas. The demonstration took place on 7 September 2023 in Belgium at the bomb detection centre DOVO/SEDEE.
The €1.55 million project, Artificial Intelligence for Detection of Explosive Devices, or AIDED, was granted funding through the Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR) in the 2019 call. PADR is a precursor to the European Defence Fund (EDF), of which the European Commission has overall responsibility. Monitored by EDA, AIDED is managed by a consortium of four entities, including Germany’s Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, and headed by the Belgian SME Space Applications Services.
September’s demonstration shows the maturity of the system so far, reaching a Technology Readiness Level of three-to-four. While that TRL was the goal, it also means the technology still needs to be taken further to ensure it is fool-proof.
Powerful laser beamDifferent sensors were used for the demonstration and there was a specific focus on each of them. The sensors used for detection were:
The consortium faced issues such as the sensitivity of some sensors to soil humidity and to the movements of the carrier, the sensitivity of the systems to high temperatures and the precision of the navigation. The consortium showed their 'detect and avoid' system for avoiding collision between the UAV flying at very low altitude for good detection and the UGVs.
Next steps - 'AIDEDex'Overall the demonstration, as part of the project’s concluding phase, showed how artificial intelligence can be used effectively in several aspects in an unmanned systems operational environment such as mission planning, self navigation, team working and last but not least explosive devices detection, tasks that have been performed autonomously with minimal human intervention.
A follow-up project, known as AIDEDex, has been selected from the European Defence Fund 2022 call and will take further the efforts on unmanned ground and aerial systems for hidden threat detection. The project will have a duration of 48 months with six partners from five EU Member states.
EDA’s wider roleEDA supports all EU Member States in improving their defence capabilities through European cooperation. Acting as an enabler and facilitator for Ministries of Defence willing to engage in collaborative capability projects, the Agency has become the hub for European defence cooperation with expertise and networks spanning the whole spectrum of defence capabilities.
Member States use EDA as an intergovernmental expert platform where their collaborative projects are supported, facilitated, and implemented. For more details, please see here.
The only dedicated European exercise for the C-27J Spartan military transport aircraft launches today for two weeks of intensive joint training. Now in its seventh edition, the ‘European Spartan Exercise’ will take place at 90th airlift base - Otopeni, Romania with four participating nations: Romania, Bulgaria, Italy, and Lithuania. In this edition, the European Spartan Exercise will be tailored to the Tactical air transport including air Medevac.
The European Spartan Exercise brings together three C-27J’s and around 150 personnel and will run from 2-12 October and marking the second time Romania has hosted the exercise. The core planning team composed of personnel from participating nations and the EDA already began work on 27 September for final preparations of the exercise. All planning cells include a representative of the participating nations, while medical personnel will plan dedicated missions for medical evacuation.
Tactical trainingThe C-27J Spartan transport aircraft is designed to perform tactical missions in peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, providing direct air transport to the theatre, day and night. The Spartan Exercise is also focused on peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, training C-27J crews to fly low level tactical navigation in different scenarios. The second week of the exercise will be dedicated to Tactical Medevac activities. Several airfields in Romania have been chosen for training with crews due to perform tactical approaches, material (CDS) and personnel airdrops, also using unprepared runway and short airfield for take-off and landing.
European C-27J communityThis annual flying exercise, which is part of the EDA’s dedicated C-27J project that gathers five participating Member States that are C-27J users (the four afore-mentioned countries plus Slovakia), works to identify and develop common projects in the domains of operations, training, logistics, procurement, airworthiness and Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) to achieve a high level of interoperability and cost-efficient operating and maintenance models.
EDA’s wider roleEDA supports all EU Member States in improving their defence capabilities through European cooperation. Acting as an enabler and facilitator for Ministries of Defence willing to engage in collaborative capability projects, the Agency has become the hub for European defence cooperation with expertise and networks spanning the whole spectrum of defence capabilities.
Member States use EDA as an intergovernmental expert platform where their collaborative projects are supported, facilitated, and implemented. For more details, please see here.
The European Defence Agency (EDA) and the European Commission’s DG Environment have signed a EUR 3-million Contribution Agreement to implement work on the circular economy in defence. The EDA’s “Incubation Forum for Circular Economy in European Defence” enters its project implementation phase (“IF CEED 2”). The EDA has managed the Incubation Forum for Circular Economy in European Defence (IF CEED) over the last 2 years, which has successfully aimed at implementing circularity principles of the EU Green Deal to contribute to the operational efficiency of the armed forces.
Project ideas were built within 9 transnational incubation groups (“Project Circles”) by 300 experts from 28 Ministries of Defence in Europe, other national or international public bodies, as well as defence-related industry, research-and-technology organisations and universities.
Project IdeasSince 1 October 2023, the DG Environment of the European Commission delegates EDA with the management of the “IF CEED 2” programme, to assist and ignite the concrete implementation of the aforesaid 15 collaborative projects ideas. This initiative receives a contribution of EUR 1.8 million from the EU LIFE Programme over a period of 4 years, to be supplemented by the Agency’s own resources and possible additional revenues, for an initial minimum budget of EUR 3 million.
EDA’s work on green defenceMoreover, IF CEED 2 will remain the key European forum to develop new project ideas on circular economy in Defence, thereby enhancing the contribution of the Agency to a sustainable and resilient defence sector, as already developed under e.g. the EDA’s Capability Technology Group Energy and Environment (CapTech E&E), the Environment Social Governance Network (ESG-N), the Consultation Forum for Sustainable Energy in the Defence and Security Sector (CF SEDSS), the REACH Network, the courses on energy management in defence (DEMC) and the project Offshore Renewable Energy For Defence (Symbiosis).
For any further info: circular.economy@eda.europa.eu.
Today, the European Defence Agency (EDA) hosted the final meeting of the PILUM project, which focuses on a disruptive concept for an electromagnetic railgun (EMRG) - a future complementary artillery system with the potential of significantly higher projectile velocities and long-range effect. Launched in April 2021, with funding from the European Commission (EC) under the Preparatory Action for Defence Research (PADR), today’s meeting focused on the main research topics studied within PILUM and the results obtained for each of the three components of the EMRG: the railgun, the hypersonic projectile and electric energy storage and conversion.
All seven partners from four European countries working together on this study agreed that significant advancements in the three key areas of electromagnetic artillery were made. This progress sets the stage for the future of advanced electromagnetic weaponry. The achievements in the PILUM project serve as a strong foundation for the next phase called THEMA (Technology for Electromagnetic Artillery) and launched under the EC's European Defence Fund (EDF). THEMA's goal is to prepare for the testing of an electromagnetic railgun on a firing range by 2028.
PILUM – Progress on three key components
Across the results obtained for each of the three components of the EMRG significant findings were reported in the final meeting. The railgun launcher's critical components, exposed to extreme heat and high-speed friction, were protected with special wear-resistant materials, which significantly extended the railgun barrel's lifespan.
The project also developed a concept for hypervelocity projectiles for speeds up to MACH 6. The performance of the projectile concept was extensively assessed at MACH 5 through wind tunnel experiments and computer simulations.
Additionally, the PILUM project explored various energy supply ideas, such as capacitive and inductive energy concepts. The capacitive system demonstrated a 25% increase in energy density under specific operational conditions. Another promising solution, the XRAM inductive energy concept, showed potential for storing magnetic energy efficiently, with ongoing work to address its technological challenges in the maturation phase (THEMA project).
EDA Chief Executive, Jiří Šedivý, visited Ireland for high-level talks with Micheál Martin, Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister of Defence, and senior officials from the Irish Department of Defence. The Chief Executive also met with members of the Irish Defence & Security Association. The trip to Dublin was part of Mr Šedivý’s ‘tour des capitales’, which sees him visiting all the EDA’s Member States.
The discussions with Minister Martin mainly focused on Ireland’s ongoing and increased involvement in EDA’s activities, new opportunities for EDA to support Irish defence efforts and the upcoming EU Capability Development Plan (CDP). Mr Šedivý also met with senior officials from the Irish Department of Defence, including; Secretary General Department of Defence, Jacqui Mc Crum, Defence Policy Director, Bernie Maguire and Capability and National Armament Director, Eamon Murtagh. During the second day of the visit, the Chief Executive also held discussions with senior Irish Defence Forces’ personnel, Col Matt Byrne, Director of Ordnance and Lt Col Fred O Donovan, Strategic Planning Branch.
To date, Ireland participates in a total of 11 EDA projects and programmes. These include: the European Centre for Manual Neutralisation Capabilities; the EU SatCom market; Military Search Capacity Building and MARSUR Networking. Ireland also signed EDA’s recent collaborative procurement projects for ammunition, CBRN and soldier equipment, and is awaiting acceptance into the MICNET projects, as part for a recent government decision to join four projects within the Agency. Ireland also participates in four projects under the Permanent Structured Cooperation mechanism, PESCO, and is an observer in 21 projects.
“My visit to Dublin is particularly important as the cooperation between the Agency and Ireland has been growing. Over the past few years, Irish participation and interest in the EDA has only increased and I believe there are further opportunities ahead to deepen the Agency’s support to Ireland. The recent signature by Ireland to join EDA’s ambitious collaborative procurement projects is a testament to EDA’s tailored support on offer to all its Member States”, Jiří Šedivý said.
“I very much welcome the Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency to Dublin. Ireland has been a participating member of the Agency since its establishment in 2004. We work closely with the EDA to enable the delivery of key capabilities for the Defence Forces. Engagement in EDA Projects allows access to training, information sharing and key technologies that we simply would not be able to achieve on our own. Ireland will continue to use all opportunities to enhance and develop Defence Forces capabilities through the EDA”, Micheál Martin, Tánaiste and Minister of Defence said.
EDA’s wider roleEDA supports all EU Member States in improving their defence capabilities through European cooperation. Acting as an enabler and facilitator for Ministries of Defence willing to engage in collaborative capability projects, the Agency has become the hub for European defence cooperation with expertise and networks spanning the whole spectrum of defence capabilities.
Member States use EDA as an intergovernmental expert platform where their collaborative projects are supported, facilitated, and implemented. For more details, please see here.
In seeking to create viable personnel (PR) recovery capability in Europe, the European Defence Agency supported Joint Personnel Recovery Staff Course (JPRSC) recently concluded its 29th edition. Hosted from September 5 - 15 at Germany's Air Operations Command, this course provided significant elements for the process to enhance Europe's (PR) capabilities for the participants from six Member States.
The course was attended by experts from Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden, Romania, Ireland, and Germany. Throughout the training event, a challenging combined and joint learning environment was created to qualify the 15 students to organise the rescue of personnel in distress according to NATO and EU standards. In line with the primary objective of the course - to provide staff members with the knowledge, skills and expertise required to effectively assist their commanders in PR-related matters - all relevant aspects of Planning and Execution were covered, in addition to promoting interoperability amongst the forces.
Empowering the Vanguard of Personnel RecoveryThe JPRSC places a significant emphasis on training personnel earmarked for an employment in JPR C2 nodes such as: Tactical Operation Centres (TOCs), Personnel Recovery Coordination Cells (PRCCs) and Joint Personnel Recovery Centres (JPRCs). By doing so, it provides the participating European nations with a robust pool of proficient personnel that can execute PR operations with seamless precision as a precursor for the establishment of support structures in future operations.
The next and 30th edition of the JPRSC is already under development and will be organised and hosted by Sweden from 28 November to 8 December. With PR already identified as an operational shortfall in many Member States, the JPRSC provides a unique benefit to enhance European PR capabilities by enhancing interoperability through training standardisation in a cost-effective way by pooling and sharing Member States’ available PR resources.
EDA’s wider roleEDA supports all EU Member States in improving their defence capabilities through European cooperation. Acting as an enabler and facilitator for Ministries of Defence willing to engage in collaborative capability projects, the Agency has become the hub for European defence cooperation with expertise and networks spanning the whole spectrum of defence capabilities.
Member States use EDA as an intergovernmental expert platform where their collaborative projects are supported, facilitated, and implemented. For more details, please see here.