First European Defence Innovation Day Calls for More Investment and Cooperation
Brussels, 1 June 2022. “We must invest more in defence and make up for years of budget cuts and underinvestment. The message is clear: we need to reduce fragmentation and invest more together, starting now”, said High Representative/Head of the European Defence Agency, Josep Borrell, during the first European Defence Innovation Day – organised by the European Defence Agency under the auspices of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The event displayed how greater investment and cooperation in defence innovation is crucial to maintain and drive European technological sovereignty.
A first for the European Defence Innovation Hub (HEDI)
The Defence Innovation Day marks the official launch – and first activity – of the Hub for European Defence Innovation (HEDI) which was established within EDA following a decision by Member States’ Defence Ministers on 17 May. The launch of HEDI is not only an important first delivery of the Strategic Compass, but also a crucial step towards a more innovative European defence.
The Head of Agency, Josep Borrell said: “EDA certainly has a key role to play in defence innovation. It has been dealing with innovation since its creation in 2004. And it has already delivered. Successful examples include projects on drone swarms; technologies for electromagnetic railguns; or new clean energy technologies to lower the carbon footprint and decrease energy dependencies in the defence sector. These are all initiatives developed at EDA”.
Speaking at the opening of the event, EDA Chief Executive, Jiri Šedivý said: “The creation of the Hub for European Defence Innovation in EDA is an additional sign that Member States are ready to take European defence innovation to the next level, in cooperation with the European Commission but also with NATO”.
Showcasing European Excellence in Innovation
The European Defence Innovation Day also extended to an exhibition highlighting cutting-edge defence innovations developed at national and European level. The exhibition gathered innovators from 19 Member States and 9 developed within the framework of the European Defence Agency. “I’m proud” of EDA’s work on innovation so far, “but we have to do more”, the Head of the Agency Josep Borrell said, insisting on a close cooperation with the European Commission and its European Defence Fund (EDF), as well as with NATO “because we have the same purpose”.
The event gathered defence experts and innovators from EU institutions, Member States’ Defence Ministries, armed forces and innovation agencies, NATO, media, research institutes, industry and academia. A summary of the discussions during the event are available here.
#EDID22 | Highlights from the European Defence Innovation Day
🇪🇺 Discussing national #defence#innovation, showcasing cutting-edge defence innovations, technical talks & exchange between experts across different sectors
CROWN PADR Project at Eurosatory 2022 | News from Synergy Projects
If you are visiting Eurosatory 2022 on 13th – 17th June, 2022, and you are interested in topics of land, and air-land defense and security the CROWN PADR Project, will be glad to meet you at the exhibit in Paris Nord, France.
The first European Defence Innovation Day organised by the European Defence Agencyunder the auspices of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union, takes places on May 31st, 2022.
This conference and exhibition provide a timely opportunity to further ignite innovation in European defence and maximise synergies between civilian innovation and defence. A high-level conference will be coupled with a dedicated exhibition which will showcase and demonstrate European excellence in defence innovation.
The first European Defence Innovation Day will take place on Tuesday, 31 May 2022 in Brussels and online.
You can join online for this high-level event focused on driving European excellence in defence innovation with speakers from EDA, French Ministry for the Armed Forces, Defence Innovation Agency – France, NATO, European Commission, Saab, TNO, and the University of Cologne. The event will be closed by Josep Borrell, HR/VP and Head of the European Defence Agency.
The full agenda for the event can be found here, to register simply fill out this registration form. Registrations for this online event must close on Monday 30th at 09:00.
EDA’s study in Risk Assessment, Aviation Safety & Test Flights
European Defence Agency (EDA) has published the results of its study in assessment, aviation safety & test flights. It delivers final recommendations for accommodation of large military drones in civil air traffic
EDA’s work in support of the accommodation and integration of large military Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS, or drones) in civil air traffic in non-segregated airspace has just reached a significant milestone when the Agency delivered to its Member States the final findings and recommendations of its study on the ‘Accommodation of MALE-type RPAS: scenarios and safety case’ ordered in 2019.
2nd INTERACT Workshop on UxS Interoperability | Stockholm
The 2nd Workshop on UxS Interoperability took place in hybrid format on 3rd-4th May 2022 in Stockholm, Sweden. It was hosted by FOI partners and the consortium team had the opportunity to meet and further elaborate UxS Interoperability aspects. A warm thank you to all partners for their active participation.
INTERACT establishes a new communication synergy with EXCEED PADR project
The INTERACT PADR project team further expands its network by establishing a communication collaboration(synergy) with the EXCEED PADR project. In the frame of this collaboration, cross communication activities will be made aiming to promote both projects’ news and results to a wider audience of experts and stakeholders.
EXCEED stands for trustEd and fleXible system-on-Chip for EuropEan Defence applications. The project aims at paving the way for a trusted European supply chain of reconfigurable, flexible and trustable programmable system-on-a-chip family targeting a number of ruggedized and secure defence applications such as for radio frequency (RF) sensors and signal processing arrays, flexible radios, secure positioning and navigation, UAV data links, military networks, flexible cryptography engines, dismounted soldier, guidance and mission critical controllers.
The security of the System-on-chip architecture is studied in detail to cope with Classified information and defence specificities as well as country-specific requirements, through protection, personalisation and life-cycle management. The project also focuses on System Development Tools. The secure chip is fabricated in a trusted environment in Europe. The demonstrator chip will be a mid-scale member of the family.
The consortium encompasses a total of 19 participants from 6 EU countries and Norway. The project, which has a duration of 36 months, starting 1st of November 2020, will receive an EU grant of roughly €12 million.
INTERACT is featured at CROWN PADR Website | News & Events Section
INTERACT PADR project is featured at CROWN PADR website on section News & Events! This article announces the establishment of a communication synergy amongst our project and CROWN. Moreover, a short description of INTERACT and its offered solution is provided.
The INTERACT PADR project team expands its network by establishing a communication collaboration(synergy) with the CROWN PADR project. In the framework of this synergy, cross communication activities will be made aiming to promote both projects’ news and results to a wider audience.
About CROWN PADR project
CROWN (European active electronically scanned array with Combined Radar, cOmmunications, and electronic Warfare fuNctions for military applications) received funding for the Research Action call on the topic “Electromagnetic Spectrum Dominance” under the European Union’s Preparatory Action on Defence Research (PADR). The project has a duration of 30 months.
CROWN will address research and technological development activities to go a step further in the development of European next-generation multifunction radiofrequency (RF) system mainly for airborne surveillance platforms based on Active Electronically Scanned Arrays (AESA) technology capable of integrating radar, electronic warfare and communications functions into a single compact and lightweight item of equipment. The project makes a significant contribution towards building European industrial defence capability and ensuring industrial independence.
The planned activities of the project include R&D assessment and recommendations on critical technologies, R&T activities on system and component level as well as designing, manufacturing and testing of a small-scale prototype.
CROWN is led by Indra Sistemas S. A. (Spain), and the consortium of the project encompasses a total of 11 participants from 7 countries.
INNOVATION IN THE DEFENCE INDUSTRY | European Defence Matters Magazine
A very interesting interview about the innovation in the European defence industry was given by the INTERACT PADR partner, INDRA, in the latest issue of European Defence Matters magazine (Issue No. 22) . You can read below the full interview or view it on EDA’s website(pp. 26 – 27).
Introducing innovative technologies or processes in the defence domain can only be successful if done hand in hand with the defence industry. How are Europe’s defence producers coping with innovation-driven challenges and how is their way of working impacted by the current innovation push? We asked María Luz Gil Heras, Technology Acquisition Manager at Indra*, about her views and assessment.
Innovation is everywhere in defence, from new disruptive technologies and management forms to close cooperation with the civil world. How does this affect the industrial side of capability development, i.e. the way defence equipment is designed, produced and maintained? The defence industry makes intensive use of technologies and, therefore, innovation plays an important role. The growing level of complexity and integration of the required solutions makes it compulsory that the technologies used are state of the art, so as to meet the needs of our customers. In addition, the defence industry must have the capacity to develop and produce advanced equipment; something that requires strong investments and government support. Technological progress is helping industry to reduce delivery times and costs and to increase the performance and reliability of the defence equipment. New management techniques, the adoption of new design methodologies, as for example the ‘Design for Excellence’, and new technological advancements – combined with highly qualified engineering and sophisticated manufacturing skills – are transforming the defence industry.
We are in the midst of a digital transformation of our industry, ‘Industry 4.0’ if you want, where technology has a key role, but transformation also covers other important aspects such as people, processes, culture and governance. Within the design process, modelling and simulation as well as the creation of digital twins are options that could be used throughout the whole life cycle. Of course, the latest technological advances in many areas are delivering new high-performance designs. Digitised supply chains, 3D-printing and augmented/virtual reality are being adopted for production. In the field of maintenance, prediction is significantly improved thanks to monitoring, analytics as well as smart and remote customers assistance. This allows for a more efficient operational use and an extended life-cycle of the systems.
As regards the civil industr y, it has experienced a huge development due to massive demand of electronics or inform a tion and communication technologies (ICT). It is a fact that the investments in civil R&D are currently higher than in the defence domain which makes the defence industry more dependent on civil technologies, while it mainly concentrates its R&D on critical technologies. One the main issues resulting from this situation is the obsolescence problem the defence industry has to face with respect to the maintenance of its systems. Another problem lies in the fact that the volume of specific electronic parts required by the defence industry is not comparable, because it’s much lower than that used in the civil industry. This implies that investments needed to adapt civil products to specific defence requirements are sometimes difficult to justify.
Can you give an example of innovative impact on the defence industry?
Something that the defence industry, like other industries, is doing is to connect its processes and information. Information can flow now better than ever before, both inside and outside of the organisation. Big amounts of data can be stored and analysed for business improvement but also to collect data from the different systems and use it for the improvement of the design processes, for manufacturing and operation. New ways of management and software solutions are being adopted by the companies. One example can be found in the incorporation of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tools that help to manage the whole lifecycle of a system from its concept to the design, manufacturing and up to the system withdrawal. PLM tools integrate product data with processes and business systems, as for example sales and supply chain systems. With regard to the supply chain, there is a need for anticipation and close collaboration with industry and its suppliers. The digitisation of this relationship and the application of new analysis techniques making use of artificial intelligence and cloud solutions will help to increase the capacity to deliver on time and to be more cost effective in the production phase. We must not overlook the fact that all these innovations and breakthroughs bring also new challenges, for example the cybersecurity need to protect data and systems within the organisations.
Under the impulse of the EU defence initiatives (CARD, PESCO, EDF), defence capability planning and development in Europe is set to become more collaborative and multinational. How will this change industrial processes?
There is no doubt that all these EU defence initiatives will offer big opportunities but also challenges. The European defence industry is experiencing great changes as a consequence of the development of common policies within the framework of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and there will be no other way of working for countries and industries than through cooperation. Most of the EU’s future programmes will be implemented through international cooperation to achieve a common objective. Industrial models and processes will have to adapt to this new way of working. To define the future military capabilities, governments and industries from different countries will have to enable mechanisms of communication and coordination and develop common processes, systems and tools. It will also be also very important to include SMEs and research and technological centres within this ecosystem and ensure there is an appropriate knowledge management derived from cooperation.
In your view, are Europe’s defence producers prepared to live up to those challenges?
This is a long-distance race. It will require continuous work and strong commitment by the Ministries of Defence and the industry to be prepared and face all these challenges. In this respect, the support and enhancement of the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB) is very important. Many of the initiatives show that Europe is aware of this, but this ambition has to be implemented gradually through a solid workplan, continuously monitored and updated, that must strengthen the European defence industry, increase its global competition and efficiency and overcome the current defence market fragmentation.
*Indra is one of the leading global technology and consulting companies providing proprietary solutions in specific segments in transport and defence markets, as well as a leading firm in digital transformation consultancy and information technologies.
