On 31 October, the Spanish missile consortium SMS, of which GMV is a member, formally signed on to the development program for the European hypersonic interceptor HYDEF.

Specifically, the director of OCCAR-EA, together with the HYDEF consortium—made up of 14 industrial partners from seven countries (Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Norway, Poland, and Sweden) and represented by SMS (associated on behalf of the OCCAR countries participating in HYDEF, such as Belgium, Germany, Norway, Poland, and Spain)—signed the Grant Agreement (GA) on behalf of the European Commission and the HYDEF Linked Procurement Contract (LPC).

The program has a total budget of €110 million, of which €100 million is co-financed by the European Union’s European Defence Fund (EDF). The aim of the program is to research and define the concept of a European hypersonic interceptor capable of neutralizing new emerging threats and those likely to arise in the coming decades, and incorporating new technologies (e.g. innovation in propulsion, aerodynamics, guidance systems, sensors, and actuators) to achieve maximum maneuverability and performance.

Within the program, GMV is responsible for Boost and Mid-Course (BMC) navigation, which includes the GNSS solution hardware and software It is also leading the pre-launch BMC guidance and the simulation environment for system performance evaluation. GMV is also playing a key role in defining the concept of operations (CONOPS) for space situational awareness and early warning as part of the overall assessment of the guidance, navigation, and control performance of the future European air defense system against hypersonic threats.

HYDEF is aligned with the EDF 2021 project (EU HYDEF), for which OCCAR-EA was appointed as grant authority. The signing of the Grant Agreement marks an important step in strengthening the cooperation between OCCAR-EA and the European Commission in the management of the European Defence Fund.

The project kick-off meeting was held in Madrid on 29 November and included a working group with various end users to gather operational requirements.