EU's trial programme for defence capability set to disburse its final funding

Financial grants worth nearly EUR300 million (USD356 million) for two major flagship capability projects and a host of new, smaller ones will complete the European Union's (EU's) spending for its 2019–20 European Defence Industry Development Programme (EDIDP), the European Commission announced on 30 June.

As a so-called precursor programme that tested defence spending by the EU, the EDIDP – and its smaller twinned EU precursor budget of EUR90 million for defence research – set the stage for the union's much larger European Defence Fund (EDF), which is worth EUR8 billion for 2021-27 and was officially launched on 30 June.

Commenting on the various initiatives' expected impact on the sector, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton declared that European co-operation in defence “will become the norm. Public authorities will spend better together and companies – big or small – from all member states will benefit, resulting in more integrated European defence-industrial value chains.”

The EDIDP's concluding round of grants, worth EUR295 million, will be conferred on the two previously selected flagship capability projects and on 26 new ones linked to the programme's 2020 call for proposals. EDIDP's total budget for 2019-20 was EUR500 million.

Direct award grants totaling EUR137 million are set to go to two flagship projects: EUR37 million for the European Secure Software Defined Radio (ESSOR) programme and EUR100 million for the development of the European Medium-Altitude, Long-Endurance (MALE) Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS). EDIDP rules allow direct awards if there are no other competitive consortia in the EU.