Munich. Airbus is participating in 10 collaborative defence research and development projects funded by the European Commission as part of the European Defence Fund (EDF).
On 26 June 2023, the European Commission announced plans to fund 41 collaborative defence research and development projects with a total budget of € 832 million. This funding decision comes as a result of a call for proposals issued in 2022.
The EDF proposals are designed to support high-end defence capability projects in critical areas such as, naval, ground, air combat, space-based early warning and cyber.
“In times where individual nations are protective of their respective national champions, European collaboration is more important than ever to create much needed scale for defence in Europe”, said Mike Schoellhorn, CEO of Airbus Defence and Space. “I thank the European Commission for their relentless drive to push cooperation among member states. Airbus Defence and Space will lead four out of ten projects and contribute to six others with its expertise. We are committed to making these European success stories.”
Out of the 10 projects with Airbus participation, the company is expected to coordinate four of them:
- the Single European Sky and InterOPerability;
- EUropean Cyber and INFormation warfare toolbox;
- a Future Air System for European Tactical Transportation; and
- Space based Persistent ISR for Defence and Europe Reinforcement.
The European Commission announced it will now enter into grant agreement preparation with the selected consortia. Pending a successful conclusion of these preparations, the grant agreements are expected to be signed before the end of the year.
