European Defence Fund on track with €525 million for Eurodrone and other joint research and industrial projects.

The Commission has today adopted work programmes to co-finance joint defence industrial projects in 2019-2020 worth up to €500 million. A further €25 million have been earmarked to support collaborative defence research projects in 2019, with calls for proposals.

 European Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft (MALE RPAS) – or Eurodrone Mock-up at ILA 2018
(Picture source: DeffiSK)

The Juncker Commission is making an unprecedented effort to protect and defend Europeans. From 2021, a fully-fledged European Defence Fund will foster an innovative and competitive defence industrial base and contribute to the EU's strategic autonomy. Through two precursors to the Fund, the Commission is taking steps to make defence cooperation under the EU budget a reality as of now. The Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR) continues to deliver for the third year running. And with today's decisions, the Commission kick-starts the first EU-funded joint defence industrial projects through the European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP). This will focus on areas including drone technology, satellite communication, early warning systems, artificial intelligence, cyberdefence or maritime surveillance.

The first European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP) work programme agreed with the Member States provides €500 million in co-financing for the joint development of defence capabilities during 2019-2020. In the coming days the Commission will publish 9 calls for proposals for 2019, and 12 further calls will follow for 2020. These calls will cover priority areas in all domains – air, land, sea, cyber and space:

• Enabling operations, protection and mobility of military forces: €80 million is available to help develop CBRN threat detections capabilities or counter drone systems;
• Intelligence, secured communication & Cyber: €182 million will cover cyber situational awareness and defence, space situational awareness and early warning capabilities, or maritime surveillance capabilities;
• Ability to conduct high-end operations: €71 million will support the upgrade or the development of the next generation of ground-based precision strike capabilities, ground combat capabilities, air combat capabilities and future naval systems;
• Innovative defence technologies & SMEs: €27 million will support solutions in Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality and Cyber technologies, as well as to support SMEs.
• In addition, two projects have been proposed for direct award: €100 million to support the development of the Eurodrone, a crucial capability for Europe's strategic autonomy, and €37 million to support ESSOR interoperable and secure military communications.