On October 31, 2023, the contract between OCCAR (Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière
d’Armement) and Sistemas de Misiles de España (SMS) for the HYDEF (Hypersonic Defence Interceptor Study) programme was signed in Bonn, Germany. As first European programme for defence against
hypersonic threats, the HYDEF programme of the consortium around SMS (Escribano Mechanical &
Engineering, GMV, Instalaza and Sener Aeroespacial) from Spain and Diehl Defence from Germany was
able to clearly position itself by signing the contract with OCCAR. This marks the official start of the
programme. The consortium consists of 14 entities from seven European nations.
The members of the HYDEF programme have a long experience in developing and producing high
performance components for air defence applications. In detail, the following companies are part of the
HYDEF Consortium: Belgium with SONACA; Czech Republic with LKE; Germany with Diehl Defence
(Technical Coordinator); Norway with Nammo; Poland with ILOT and ITWL; Spain with SMS (Programme
Coordinator), EM&E, GMV, Instalaza, INTA, Navantia and Sener; and Sweden with Beyond Gravity (former
RUAG). With this geographically balanced and technologically complementary consortium, new integrated and competitive cross border supply chains will be developed to foster interoperability and
standardization of new air defence capabilities.
The Spanish company SMS is responsible for the programme management within the HYDEF programme. The German system house for air defence systems Diehl Defence, headquartered at Lake Constance, is in charge of the technical implementation from the development of the overall system to the interceptor itself. In the future, the overall system will be able to detect and intercept hypersonic cruise missiles (HCMs) as well as highly agile hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs). All this will be realized through the networking of various, partly space based sensors and the interceptor system which will be deployed on the basis of existing NATO BMD command and control systems wherever possible. The consortium is optimally qualified to solve this highly complex and multidimensional task of system interconnection.
The HYDEF programme is based on the successful signing of the contract in July 2022, when the European Commission announced the HYDEF programme as the winner of the tender. At that time, the HYDEF programme was able to prevail over the competitor and could clearly win the Europe wide tender.
HYDEF is closely linked to the PESCO EU programme «Timely Warning and Interception with Space
based TheatER surveillance» (TWISTER) and deals with the development of an overall endo atmospheric
interceptor concept for air defence. This programme has a total amount of 110 million euros, of which 100 million euros are co funded by the EU European Defence Funds (EDF).
