On 19 December, the Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency (EDA), Jorge Domecq, and the Executive Director of the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SESAR JU) Florian Guillermet, have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) which promotes collaboration on SESAR 2020, the next phase of research and innovation in air traffic management.

The MOC builds on existing working arrangements and ensures that, pursuant to EDA’s role, military views will be taken into consideration in the context of SESAR ATM Research and Development. The MOC seeks to align civil and military technological development initiatives wherever possible and optimises the use of expertise and available resources, notably in relation to space based systems, remote piloted aircraft systems, cyber security, ATM standards development, the European ATM Master Plan and evolutions of military capabilities and technologies.

“This memorandum of cooperation reinforces EDA’s relationship with the SJU, in support of our role to ensure that military interests and specificities are taken into account in the further evolutions in the Single European Sky, particularly in relation to SESAR 2020 and RPAS Air Traffic Insertion (ATI). It also underpins our joint objective to identify opportunities for civil-military synergy in the context of dual-use R&T projects, notably in support of the recently established RPAS ATI coordination mechanism between the European Commission, EASA, SJU and EDA”, said Jorge Domecq, EDA.

“It is only through the effective collaboration of military and civil aviation stakeholders that we will achieve our mission to modernise Europe’s skies. Building on an already solid relationship, this renewed cooperation with the EDA will further facilitate coordination of military views across the SESAR JU research and innovation activities in SESAR 2020,”, said Florian Guillermet, SJU.