During the last European Defense Fund (EDF) workshop, our team members Dorothea Thomas-Aniola and Jonathan Kobold discussed the EDF program and ongoing activities at HENSOLDT.
Programme in a nutshell:
- Challenges: The EU defence sector faces challenges that threaten its competitiveness and technological advantage, which could hinder its ability to develop crucial defence systems; therefore, action at the EU level is necessary to address rising costs, weak cooperation, and fragmentation within the industry.
- Mission: The goal of the EDF is to promote collaboration among Member States, address fragmentation, and improve the competitiveness and technological independence of the European defence industry.
- Objectives: The specific objectives of the EDF are to facilitate collaborative defence research and development to enhance future capabilities in the EU and to support the development of defence products and technologies in line with agreed defence capability priorities, providing consistent support across the research and development cycle.
- Actions: Cooperation among different entities from different Member States, with a focus on enhancing cross-border participation of small and medium-sized enterprises. Also, it promotes innovation by supporting disruptive defense technologies.
To learn more, please visit the European programme website.
