Specific Focus on Air Defence, EW and Cyber
The European Defence Fund (EDF) will allocate €832 million (US$905 million) to 41 select joint defence and industrial projects as part of the 2022 EDF call for proposals, focused on developing EU capabilities in the naval, ground, air, space-based early warning and cyber domains, the European Commission announced on 26 June. This year, the EDF has “a specific focus […] on air defence capacities, electronic warfare and cyber-defence,” explained Thierry Breton, EU industry Commissioner.
Out of the overall budget, €514 million will be allocated to capability development projects, and the other €317 million to research into countering emerging challenges. Projects will gather 550 entities from 26 EU countries and Norway, and selected consortia will include all sizes of companies, research institutions and other bodies. Among the projects, 11 are related to PESCO, while SMEs will represent 39% of all entities and will receive 20% of total funding.
Among the main naval projects is the EU Naval Collaborative Surveillance Operational Standard (E-NACSOS), aimed at developing a new collaborative standard, protocols and interface for anti-air and missile defence, to ensure superiority of surface vessels at sea, tackling new and asymmetric threats. The overall estimated cost for the project is around €101 million, with the maximum EU contribution potentially reaching €65 million. It will involve 11 EU countries, including Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.
The Responsive Electronic Attack for Cooperation Tasks II (REACTII) project will boost EU defence sector efforts to address existing gaps in airborne electronic attack (AEA) capabilities. The solution will enable escort jamming, stand-off jamming, stand-in jamming, and EW C2 functionalities, as well as cyber and electromagnetic activities. The estimated cost will be €69.7 million, with a €40 million EDF contribution. The project is related to the PESCO AEA programme, and will see the participation of Germany, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland, among others.
Another particularly important and strategic project is ODIN’S EYE II, which builds on progress in space-based missile early warning, gathering industry from 14 member states to enhance critical EU capabilities.
Four projects are focused on disruptive technologies, including studies and pre-desIgn work for next-generation quiet hypersonic wind tunnel facilities for EuropeaN strategic auTonomy and TecHnology for ElectroMagnetic Artillery (ESTHEMA).
Total funding (and the number of projects) is lower than in 2021, when 60 R&D projects were selected, with a budget of €1.2 billion. At that time, SMEs represented 43% of the total number of participants, though aggregate funding was lower. The reason, an EU official said, is that last year the EDF took more money from the budget because the “selected project was bigger in scale, so the EU took additional funding from other years to be able to allow the realisation of bigger programmes”.
The EDF is generally considered a major success story for EU cooperation in defence. Last week, the Commission asked for an additional €1.5 billion to top up the fund, as part of its mid-term review, but the decision has still to pass through the EU legislative process.
Caterina Tani reporting from Brussels for MON
