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 in Europe.

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, remotely piloted aircraft systems, cyber security, ATM standards development, the European ATM Master Plan and evolutions of military capabilities and technologies.

EDA is already cooperating with Eurocontrol on the SESAR programme. The Agency has access fo Eurocontrol’s expertise in civil-military ATM coordination to facilitate EDA’s role regarding the coordination of military views in the context of the Single European Sky and its interface towards the EU institutions.