Leonardo, here are Mbda’s plans for the European hypersonic interceptor
At the Paris Air Show, MBDA presented the Aquila project to develop a hypersonic interceptor prototype for Europe over the next three years
Mbda relaunches with Aquila on the future European hypersonic interceptor.
On the occasion of the Paris Air Show, the European missile group composed of Airbus (37.5%), BAE Systems (37.5%) and Leonardo (25%), has revealed a new concept of hypersonic missile interceptor, dubbed Aquila, as part of plans to field an endo-atmospheric interceptor capability in 2030.
At the end of July 2022, the European Commission announced the results of the tenders of the European Defense Fund (EDF). MBDA had bid to receive EDF funds to build an interceptor in 2022 under the moniker HYDIS.
And surprisingly, Brussels had selected the consortium led by the Spanish group Sener (German Diehl was present) for the HYDEF (Hypersonic Defense Interceptor) programme, worth 100 million euros. This project is to develop a European interceptor (greater than Mach 5) with the capability to respond to hypersonic threats.
According to La Tribune , in late September the group led by Eric Beranger had brought an action for annulment to the European Commission after considering for several weeks whether to initiate this action.
After which, last March, the European Commission decided to launch a second program within the EDF for the study of a future endo-atmospheric interceptor for countering modern missile threats. “Although the proposal was not selected at the time, officials are optimistic that a second attempt, with the same industry team, could prove more effective,” Defense News noted.
All the details.
THE MBDA EAGLE PROJECT
Aquila, the result of five years of in-house research, is currently in a three-year, €80 million concept phase funded by the European Defense Fund. Industrially, it is supported by the MBDA Hypersonic Defense Interception Study (HYDIS²), involving 19 industrial partners and 30 subcontractors from 14 European countries.
MBDA company executives told media that the Eagle concept has the support of partner nations France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, who will be responsible for agreeing on a final design at the end of a three-year concept phase, Breaking Defense reports. .
“This project – commented Eric Béranger, CEO of MBDA – offers a significant European advantage, helping to increase European resilience and technological sovereignty, through the strengthening of cooperation and interoperability between EU countries. The project will also contribute to increasing the sovereignty of the European missile systems industry, supporting and developing skills, materials and technologies defined as "critical" and strengthening European industrial competitiveness. Technologies related to the hypersonic sector are constantly evolving and staying at the forefront is a priority for MBDA to guide Europe towards the most effective solution to counter hypersonic threats".
THE TARGET
Finally, the goal of HYDIS² is to design different interceptor concepts and to mature the related critical technologies to identify the best solution that meets the needs of the four states – France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands – and that is consistent with the works of the European program Twister. HYDIS2 represents a central contribution of European states to the mission of defending their populations and armed forces against hypersonic threats, which mark a radical change in defense concepts compared to ballistic ones.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/leonardo-ecco-i-piani-di-mbda-sullintercettore-ipersonico-europeo/ on Fri, 23 Jun 2023 05:53:39 +0000.