It became known when the EU will start deploying its own anti-missile defense against the interceptor of hypersonic missiles

The other day, the European intergovernmental Organization for Joint Cooperation in the Armaments Field (OCCAR) concluded a firm agreement with MBDA to develop a defense system against hypersonic missiles. We are talking about the initial stage of work – the study of various concepts of interceptors and the development of critical technologies for a period of three years and within the framework of the HYDIS&sup2 program; – HYpersonic Defense Interceptor Study 2.

This program is estimated at 140 million euros, of which 80 million euros are taken from the European Defense Fund. With this money, it is not planned to obtain ready-made samples, but this is one of the steps towards the implementation of the anti-missile defense project of our own European production. And the ultimate goal is to create an atmospheric interceptor that can protect against maneuvering ballistic missiles, hypersonic cruise missiles and hypersonic cruise missiles.

In fact, we are talking about a project known as Twister by MBDA with the Aquila interceptor, which is already receiving national funding, for example from Great Britain.

But now the estimated implementation dates and details of this anti-missile defense project have become known. As Janes writes, citing an unnamed MBDA representative, HYDIS² should actually not just deal with concepts, but reach TRL 6 – the presence of a beta prototype, and the technology itself must be demonstrated in an appropriate environment.

At the same time, the evaluation and demonstration of technologies should begin as early as 2026 and last for quite a long time, until 2029-2030, after which it will begin the design and production stage with the date of initial readiness of the anti-missile defense system not earlier than 2035.

It should also be recalled that the Twister project was, in fact, slightly advanced in priorities, because the Israeli Arrow 3 anti-missile defense system was chosen as an interim solution. which Germany bought in September 2023 for $3.5 billion. This anti-missile defense system uses exoatmospheric interception and should be delivered by 2025, with full combat readiness with omni-directionality achieved by 2030.