London, 1 February 2023. – Airbus has launched two defense research and development projects as part of the 2021 European Defense Fund (EDF). The EDF promotes cooperation among European companies and research institutes across the EU to strengthen Europe’s resilience and strategic autonomy. In July 2022, the European Commission selected 61 R&T and R&D projects involving new technology areas and funded with €1.2 billion, including eight collaborative projects that Airbus is part of.
Among these projects, Airbus Defense and Space coordinates the European Defense Operational Collaborative Cloud (EDOCC) project. Likewise, Airbus Helicopters is coordinating the EU Next Generation Rotorcraft Technologies Project (ENGRT). The contracts for these projects were signed in December 2022.
EDOCC will consequently create a virtual platform to increase military operations’ interoperability, efficiency, and resiliency, strengthening collaborative services on the battlefield. Furthermore, the project will study, design, and conceptually validate the virtual platform and develop the first version of a services catalog while identifying appropriate standards and technologies for high performance and interoperability.
On the other hand, ENGRT will analyze and understand the needs of European armed forces for rotorcraft operations beyond 2023. The project will study the military rotorcraft concept of operations and define critical technologies needed for future military rotorcraft, including exploring alternative rotorcraft concepts and architectures.
Airbus will also collaborate in six further multinational EDF projects, contributing expertise in the following areas: Collaborative Air Combat Standardization; Enhanced Cockpit; European Protected Waveform for SatCom; Cyber Threat Intelligence; Advanced Radar Technologies; and Advanced Radio Frequency components. The EDF’s target is to allocate €8 billion until 2027.
