The Diplomat
Indra has been awarded seven European defence contracts for a total of 72 million euros, according to a press release issued yesterday by the company.
The contracts are part of the second call of the European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP) and are aimed at strengthening the technological sovereignty, superiority and security of member states.
In its press release, Indra highlights that, for the second consecutive year, it leads the Spanish participation in this programme, with the largest number of projects with the highest value. Moreover, the contracts facilitate the incorporation of other national companies and research centres to the initiative, making Spain one of the three countries with the largest presence in the programme.
In this way, the Spanish company brings to a total of 19 the number of projects of the new European Defence Fund in which it is involved, a figure that places it among the companies with the largest participation in this programme on the entire continent.
The new contracts won this year will strengthen Indra’s capabilities in strategic areas such as command and control, electronic defence, early warning, situational awareness systems, space and radar systems and advanced solutions to counter drones.
“We are going to develop Artificial Intelligence technologies, advanced algorithms and much more efficient sensors that will equip the military platforms and systems that will enter service in the coming years,” Indra said, while assuring that in “record time” it has become one of the best positioned European companies in the new competitive environment opened up by the European Union with the creation in 2017 of the European Defence Fund.
Most of the EDIDP projects in which Indra participates will also continue within the framework of Permanent Structured Cooperation (Pesco) between states. This means that different countries will acquire these capabilities and transfer them to the systems and platforms that will protect Europe in the coming years in real missions.
Finally, the company announced that it is already working to respond to the next call for proposals from the European Defence Fund, which has a budget of 1.2 billion euros, well above that of previous years (a phase in which it will invest 8 billion in the period 2021-27, with 5.3 billion earmarked for capabilities and 2.7 billion for research).
The specific projects awarded correspond to the following projects:
–‘Jey-Cuas’. Aimed at developing capabilities to detect, classify, track and identify and/or neutralise micro- and mini-drones used for military purposes.
-‘Integral’. Focused on the development of advanced command and control capabilities to exploit the data generated by Space Situational Awareness systems and catalogue them to provide a situational picture.
-‘Odin’s Eye’. Early warning project for ballistic missile and hypersonic threats.
-‘Sauron’. Development of advanced sensors to identify and characterise objects in space based on a combination of ground-based and space-based sensors.
–‘Famous’. Development of the next generation and evolution of existing armoured platforms, including those operating in extreme climatic conditions and geographic locations.
–‘Carmenta’. A self-protection system of the future for fixed and rotary wing airborne platforms against a broad spectrum of current and emerging threats, which will be able to select the appropriate reaction in each case.
–‘Musher’. Development of a generic European manned/unmanned partnership system, enabling manned helicopters to interoperate with unmanned platforms.
