The HYDIS Project has just achieved another significant milestone for the concept development of the future European counter-hypersonic and anti-ballistic interceptor by successfully completing its Final Concept Review. One interceptor concept has proven its relevance and has been selected by the Participating States (France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands), over the two concepts from the Initial Concept Review. This marks a significant step before the conclusive milestone of the Concept Phase in May 2027.
Over the past few months, the consortium partners led by MBDA have worked hard in all domains of the interceptor and weapon system design, renowned institutes, academics and start-ups - on the design and technology maturation activities. The technical activities encompassed the design studies to refine the solid rocket motor-based concepts to match our customer requirements.
The HYDIS team specifically established an extensive performance assessment to evaluate the interception capabilities and the area protection of the most promising concepts based on a simulation with enhanced representation of the several phases of the interceptor fly-out.
The selected interceptor concept has also benefitted from the unique expertise of consortium members, notably AVIO for the Solid Rocket Motor propulsive architecture, ArianeGroup and ROXEL for the final interceptor stage control mechanism and LYNRED for the terminal IR sensor. All integrated in a coherent concept based on MBDA’s expertise in complex weapon systems.
The consortium has also made progress on integrating this interceptor into a complete weapon system. Thales Netherlands has provided refined performance data for both naval and ground sensor suite options, while GKN Fokker has gotten forward on the integrability assessment of the ammunition into the MK41s naval launcher.
The results of these studies were scrutinised by the HYDIS customer community (OCCAR – the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation - and the 4 Participating States) along a period of six weeks, allowing a solid exchange and fruitful iterations among the customers and the consortium. The convergence week provided the opportunity to address, resolve and converge on all the technical questions, allowing the consortium to present a clear and agreed picture to the HYDIS nations Steering Committee on July 10th. This new milestone demonstrates the consortium's full expertise in the fields of hypersonic and ballistic threats, backed by in-depth knowledge of air defence systems. Together, the HYDIS team members leverage on a robust capability to design a sovereign, advanced interceptor, that is timely responding to Europe’s operational needs.
From now on until the end of the Concept Phase in 2027, the consortium will put all its effort into the refinement of a unique concept, paving the way for a strong technical basis for the following Programme phases.
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The European Hypersonic Defence Interceptor System” (HYDIS) is a project co-funded by the European Union, under the European Defence Fund, and by four Participating States (PSs) which are France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. OCCAR has been entrusted by the European Commission (EC) for the indirect management of the action by the signature of a Contribution Agreement. OCCAR, as Contracting Authority, has concluded a contract with the HYDIS consortium to implement the programme, on behalf of EU and the Member States.
