Mobile howitzer – Image by Military_Material from Pixabay
(BRUSSELS) – The EU Commission allocated EUR 500 million Friday for the European defence industry to ramp up its ammunition production capacity to 2 million shells per year by the end of 2025.
At the same time, the EU executive has launched the Work Programme for the instrument for the reinforcement of the European defence industry through common procurement (EDIRPA) and the fourth annual Work Programme of the European Defence Fund (EDF). These programmes have a budget of almost 2 billion.
With the support of the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP), Europe is expected to reach an annual ammunition shell production capacity 2 million by the end of 2025. 31 projects haver been selected to help European industry increase its ammunition production and readiness. The selected projects cover explosives, powder, shells, missiles, and testing and reconditioning certification. The projects will be funded with 513 million from the budgets of the EU and Norway.
ASAP focuses on powder and explosives, which are bottlenecks for ammunition shell production, and will allocate some three quarters of the programme to them. The programme will support projects increasing the annual production capacity by more than 10,000 tons of powder, and by more than 4 300 tons of explosives. Grant agreements with the selected applicants are expected to be signed in May 2024.
Member States are incentivised to jointly acquire defence products serving the most urgent and critical needs, especially those amplified by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Aggregating demand is expected to provide predictability and incentivise Europe’s defence industry to ramp up manufacturing capacity, as well as interoperability of national armed forces.
With a total budget of 310 million, the EDIRPA Work Programme will support common procurement in three areas: 1) Ammunition (e.g. small arms, artillery ammunition, mortars, rockets), 2) Air and missile defence, and 3) Platforms and replacement of legacy systems (e.g. tanks, armoured vehicles, support systems, soldier systems, drones). These funding priorities have been set together with the Member States to address urgent defence needs and replenish defence stockpiles. The submission deadline for proposals is 25 July 2024.
The EU executive has also adopted the fourth annual Work Programme of the European Defence Fund (EDF) and launched the corresponding calls for proposals, allocating an additional 1.1 billion, including 225 million to support innovation and defence start-ups through dedicated measures under the EU Defence Innovation Scheme (EUDIS).
The 2024 EDF work programme covering 32 call topics will fund projects in crucial defence domains, including countering hypersonic missiles, developing a range of unmanned vehicles in the air and on the ground, and ensuring secure space communication. It prepares the ground for next generation defence systems, such as helicopters and mid-size cargo aircraft.
The submission deadline for proposals is 5 November 2024.
Questions and answers on ASAP and EDIRPA
ASAP factsheet with projects selected for funding
