Last 29th and 30th October 2025, the HYDEF Consortium successfully held the Early Maturation Mid-Term Review (EM-MTR) and the Fourth Progress Review Meeting (PRM#4). The meeting took place at the Navantia Sistemas COEX facilities in San Fernando (Cádiz, Spain), in collaboration with the Project Coordinator Sistemas de Misiles de España S.L. (SMS) and the Technical Coordinator Diehl Defence.
These sessions represented a major milestone in the Early Technology Maturation phase, consolidating the progress made toward a reliable concept for a European Interceptor against hypersonic threats, a capability planned to be available by 2029. The ongoing maturation activities aim to guide and accelerate the development of critical technologies and functionalities essential to the mission. These include key enablers such as materials, algorithms, structures, and manufacturing processes, which have been identified across all HYDEF pillars and are being matured to reach their target Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs). The consortium’s Work Package Leaders showcased a range of demonstrative efforts, including high-fidelity simulators, laboratory tests, full-scale mock-ups, and demonstrators, all contributing to the robustness of the system design.
Representatives from OCCAR HYDEF Programme Division, National Programme Coordinators, and Technical Experts actively participated in the review, providing valuable feedback to ensure the alignment of the project with European and national defence needs.
During PRM#4, chaired by OCCAR HYDEF Programme Manager, SMS presented the latest status of the project and the progress achieved since the previous evaluation. The review confirmed that HYDEF remains on track with its objectives, with participants acknowledging the substantial technical and management advances made through the consortium’s strong collaborative approach.
With these achievements, the HYDEF Project now sets its sights on the last technical milestone, the Preliminary Requirements Review (PRR), planned for summer 2026, marking the first major step in Europe’s effort to establish a credible and autonomous capability to counter hypersonic threats.
The “European Hypersonic Defence Interceptor” (EU HYDEF) is a project co-funded by the European Union, under the European Defence Fund, and Belgium, Germany, Norway, Poland and Spain. OCCAR has been entrusted the management of the EU HYDEF project by the European Commission (EC) and the Participating States.
“Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held responsible for them.”
