Indra, one of the leading global technology and consulting companies, has had all of the proposals it has led or been involved in selected in the second call of the European Defence Fund. With a total of 14 projects selected, a third of the 41 approved by the European Commission, Indra ranks among the leading European companies. These 14 projects, two of which it leads, cover all of the company’s key technological areas. The projects amount to €500M of the total amount of €832M allocated by the EC in the 2022 call of the European Defence Fund. Indra thus takes part in more than a third of the 41 projects endorsed by the Commission. The company now boasts 52 defence projects funded by the European Commission since 2018, with 164 million euros in grants and direct contracts for Indra and an additional 80 million euros for over a dozen Spanish companies participating in them, thereby demonstrating its international leadership and reaffirming its role as a driving force in Spain.
Indra CEO José Vicente de los Mozos emphasized that “Indra is playing a decisive role in the development of new technologies that will mark the future of the sector. Thanks to the support of the European Commission, we’ll be able to shorten the lead time to bring to market innovative solutions to improve the operability and accelerate the digitalization of the Spanish Armed Forces and those of other European countries. The Europe of Defence needs Spain’s industrial development, and this development necessarily entails Indra’s national leadership”.
The company will thus see the main lines of development of its RDI supported and continuity given to initiatives that it’s been working on, which were launched in the first call of the EDIDP Program, the precursor of the European Defence Fund, in 2019, thus confirming the excellent progress of the projects and the trust that the Commission and the industry have placed in the company. Indra is coordinating the continuation of two important projects that were launched in 2019 in connection with two PESCO programs led by the Spanish Ministry of Defence. Firstly, the development of the future Strategic Command and Control system for the European Union (EC2), which will enable the EU External Action Service to achieve the level of ambition set by the Strategic Compass approved by the EU. Secondly, the development of an electronic attack system (REACT II) capable of ensuring the freedom of action of allied aircraft in environments with a significant presence of anti-aircraft systems. The company will also reinforce its presence in the major consortia that are developing the future capabilities and systems with which Europe will ensure its sovereignty and capacity for intervention in theaters of operations with a growing degree of digitalization, increasingly intelligent platforms and solutions that can counter emerging threats.
One example of the above is its participation at the core team level in the ODIN’S EYE project, which is developing an early warning system for ballistic missile defence (BMD), CASSATA, which will develop sensors designed not to give away their position, TIRESYAS, which is developing the future generation of onboard and air defence radars, capable of dealing with new threats such as hypersonic missiles and drone swarms, LATACC, which will reinforce collaborative combat capabilities in the ground environment, and FEDERATES, which is developing a collaborative simulation environment capable of supporting training and decision-making support, conducted in a coordinated manner by the Armed Forces of several EU member States. Indra, together with other European leaders in air traffic control and air defence, will develop the concepts that will enable the full integration of military flights into the Single European Sky.
The company is also reinforcing its leadership in the highly critical field of cyberdefence with significant involvement in the NEWSROOM and EUCINF projects, which will enhance cyber situational awareness and provide cyberarmies with new response tools in this field. These two initiatives come in the wake of the ECYSAP and EU-GUARDIAN cyberdefence projects led by Indra that were launched in previous calls. Indra is also part of the consortia that will analyze the development of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance satellite constellations (SPIDER), establish the standards and architectures for operational coordination and information exchange between allied vessels (E-NACSOS), design the future European medium transport aircraft, a complement to the A-400, and increase European strategic autonomy by developing advanced electronic microcircuits for defence (EPICURE). All of these initiatives will reinforce Indra’s position as one of the world’s most innovative defence companies, while it has also taken on the role of national coordinator of the FCAS, the most ambitious defence program launched in Europe to date, within which Spain, Germany and France are working as partners on the air combat system of the future.
