EU HYDEF Project reaches Preliminary Requirements Review milestone

The "European Hypersonic Defence Interceptor" (EU HYDEF) project, co-funded by the European Union under the European Defence Fund (EDF) and the Participating States (Belgium, Germany, Norway, Poland, and Spain), has reached a significant technical milestone. On August 25 and 26, the HYDEF consortium completed the Preliminary Requirements Review (PRR) at Diehl Defence’s headquarter in Überlingen/Germany.

HYDEF is Europe's first dedicated development programme for the defence against hypersonic threats. It aims to deliver an interceptor system capable of detecting and neutralizing high-speed, maneuvering threats such as highly maneuverable hypersonic glide vehicles, hypersonic cruise missiles as well as maneuverable ballistic missiles (Theater Ballistic Missiles). The consortium is led by Spanish Missile Systems (SMS) as Project Coordinator, with Diehl Defence acting as Technical Coordinator responsible for the system's technical implementation.

The event was conducted under the management of OCCAR HYDEF PD, with the active participation of the entire HYDEF consortium, as Diehl Defence and SMS. Representatives from the participating states and national experts also attended, confirming the strong alignment of the project with European strategic defence priorities and the goal of enhancing technological sovereignty.

The PRR concludes the final milestone of the project's first phase. All objectives for this phase were met on schedule and to the required quality standards, paving the way for an accelerated preliminary design process toward the HYDEF Initial Operational Capability (IOC).

The review served as a platform for the presentation and demonstration of essential technologies required for the IOC. Key technical areas demonstrated included advanced seeker technology, stage separation mechanisms, and critical electronic and aerodynamic technologies.

The PRR marks a crucial step in the project's study-oriented phase, focusing on the validation of the preliminary requirements for an endo-atmospheric (within the atmosphere) interceptor. It confirms that the technical foundation of the programme is robustly defined to meet the challenges of these threats.

With the PRR concluded, the HYDEF consortium maintains its momentum toward achieving the technology maturity levels required for future operational deployment.

The outcomes of this first phase — the preliminary IOC design and the technologies demonstrated during the PRR — will be carried forward within the framework of the follow-on EDF-2026-DA-ACC-AIRDEF-EATMI (EATMI2) project, continuing the expansion of European missile defence capabilities.

Disclaimer:
"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."