European Defence Fund funnels money to drones, hypersonic defense, AI

PARIS — The European Union’s executive arm picked 62 defense projects for a combined €910 million ($1 billion) in financing in the latest funding round by the European Defence Fund, focusing on areas including drones, autonomous mine sweeping and defense against hypersonic weapons.

Flagship projects in the funding round include Eurosweep, which aims to develop an unmanned minesweeping system, ENGRT II to develop a next-generation rotorcraft, and the iMUGS2 project to test unmanned ground vehicles, the European Commission said on Wednesday .

“This is a major step to close critical defense capability gaps and reinforce Europe’s strategic autonomy,” European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius said in a post on social media . The latest EDF funding allocation “supports both advanced R&D and real-world defense capabilities,” he said.

The fund started operating in 2021 to support collaborative defense research and development in Europe, and the latest round means the EDF has now allocated half of its budget of nearly €8 billion through to 2027. The commission picked the most recent winners from a record 297 proposals received in response to the EDF 2024 call for proposals.

Ukraine’s defense industry was able to participate in EDF projects for the first time, which “deepens our cooperation and helps integrate Ukraine into the European defense industrial base,” Kubilius said.

The EDF provides significant funding, and its budget for the 2021-2027 period accounts for around 15% of all EU defense R&D spending, with only France and Germany spending more, the International Institute for Strategic Studies wrote in an October report .

Small and medium-sized companies accounted for 27% of total funding in the 2024 call, according to the commission. That’s the highest yet, after three rounds in which SMEs accounted for between 18% and 20% of funding.

Among specific projects, European Next Generation Rotorcraft Technologies Phase II or ENGRT II received €100 million in EU funding on an estimated total cost of €160 million. The project is led by Airbus Helicopters at the head of a consortium of more than 40 companies and institutes.

The iMUGS2 project , coordinated by Milrem , received €50 million for field testing and a trial of unmanned ground systems, with the project seeking to develop system architectures to allow new and legacy military vehicles to integrate autonomous and swarming capabilities.

Milrem was founded in Estonia and now belongs to EDGE Group , a state-owned technology conglomerate of the United Arab Emirates.

Eurosweep led by Norway’s Forsvarets Forskningsinstitutt was awarded €28.5 million to develop a naval minesweeping system with autonomous features.

The EDF also provided €78 million in financing for a classified project that aims to counter hypersonic glide vehicles.

Funding included €35 million for Scepter , a research program to develop interoperable and standardized radar, electronic warfare and communication systems for airborne platforms, coordinated by Spain’s Indra Sistemas.

The Boosting European Advanced Missile System Technologies project, or Beast , aims to develop a future short-range, air-to-air missile under the lead of Diehl Defence, and received €34.9 million. A project to upgrade European cyber defense led by the Estonian Ministry of Defence’s CR14 and called Citadel Range was allocated €48 million in funding.

A concept study for a new mid-sized European military transport aircraft with a 20-ton payload, led by Airbus within the Fasett2 project, received €30 million in funding. A Rheinmetall-led project to develop non-jammable precision munition called Ninja2 received €29.6 million.

The EDF also funded five smaller projects working on resilient drone navigation or swarming capability in non-permissive environments, and four projects to apply artificial intelligence for satellite-image analysis, including for the detection and monitoring of military activities.

Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.

巴黎——欧盟执行机构在欧洲防务基金最新一轮融资中，选定了 62 个国防项目，总计提供 9.1 亿欧元（10 亿美元）的资金，重点领域包括无人机、自主扫雷和高超音速武器防御。

欧盟委员会周三表示，本轮融资的旗舰项目包括旨在开发无人扫雷系统的 Eurosweep 项目、旨在开发下一代旋翼机的 ENGRT II 项目以及旨在测试无人地面车辆的 iMUGS2 项目。

欧盟防务与航天事务专员安德留斯·库比柳斯在社交媒体上发文称：“这是弥合关键国防能力差距、加强欧洲战略自主性的重要一步。” 他还表示，最新的欧洲国防基金拨款“既支持先进研发，也支持实战国防能力建设”。

该基金于2021年开始运作，旨在支持欧洲的国防合作研发。最新一轮拨款意味着，到2027年，欧洲国防基金（EDF）已拨出其近80亿欧元预算的一半。欧盟委员会从创纪录的297份提案中选出了最新的获奖者，这些提案是响应EDF 2024提案征集而提交的。

库比柳斯表示，乌克兰国防工业首次得以参与欧洲防务基金项目，这“深化了我们的合作，并有助于乌克兰融入欧洲国防工业基地”。

欧洲国防军提供了大量资金，其 2021-2027 年的预算约占欧盟所有国防研发支出的 15%，只有法国和德国的支出超过它，国际战略研究所在 10 月份的一份报告中写道。

欧盟委员会表示，在2024年的融资项目中，中小企业占总融资额的27%。这是迄今为止最高的比例，此前三轮融资中，中小企业的融资比例在18%至20%之间。

在众多项目中，欧洲下一代旋翼机技术二期项目（ENGRT II）获得了欧盟1亿欧元的资助，预计总成本为1.6亿欧元。该项目由空中客车直升机公司牵头，联合40多家公司和机构组成。

由 Milrem 协调的 iMUGS2 项目获得了 5000 万欧元的资金，用于无人地面系统的实地测试和试验。该项目旨在开发系统架构，使新型和传统军用车辆能够集成自主和集群能力。

Milrem公司成立于爱沙尼亚，现隶属于阿联酋国有科技集团EDGE集团。

由挪威国防研究局牵头的 Eurosweep 项目获得了 2850 万欧元的拨款，用于开发具有自主功能的海军扫雷系统。

法国电力公司还为一项旨在对抗高超音速滑翔飞行器的机密项目提供了 7800 万欧元的资金。

资金包括为 Scepter 项目提供的 3500 万欧元，该项目是由西班牙 Indra Sistemas 公司协调的一项研究计划，旨在为机载平台开发可互操作和标准化的雷达、电子战和通信系统。

“提升欧洲先进导弹系统技术”项目（简称“野兽”）旨在由迪尔防务公司牵头研发未来短程空空导弹，该项目获得了3490万欧元的资金。另一项名为“堡垒靶场”的项目，旨在升级欧洲网络防御系统，由爱沙尼亚国防部下属的CR14机构牵头，获得了4800万欧元的资金。

由空客公司牵头，在Fasett2项目框架下开展的新型中型欧洲军用运输机概念研究（有效载荷20吨）获得了3000万欧元的资助。由莱茵金属公司牵头，旨在研发名为Ninja2的不可干扰精确制导武器的项目获得了2960万欧元的资助。

EDF 还资助了五个较小的项目，致力于在非许可环境下开发具有弹性的无人机导航或集群能力，以及四个将人工智能应用于卫星图像分析的项目，包括用于检测和监测军事活动。

鲁迪·鲁伊滕贝格是《防务新闻》的欧洲记者。他的职业生涯始于彭博新闻社，拥有报道科技、大宗商品市场和政治方面的经验。