GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

The specific challenges of the topic reside in the following considerations:

• recent developments and tests of ballistic missiles, hypersonic gliders and ASAT missiles have recalled the eminent and rising threat to the European people arising from those capabilities;
• there are currently neither sufficient European sensor capabilities for detection and tracking of such threats nor European capabilities available for their interception;
• until today, Europe is dependent on third-party systems for space-based early warning;
• European capabilities for ballistic missile defence (BMD) and against ASAT threats – e.g., sensor capabilities like space-based early warning and the corresponding distribution of object tracking information – are addressed in capability plans of several EU Member States and associated countries, but only partially developed and not yet operational;
• sovereignty and safety are essential for the EU as well as the capability to act, based on its own intelligence, and the ability to defend, based on its own decisions;
• the detection and interception of ballistic and hypersonic threats are complex and costly and would benefit from a cooperative approach at EU level;
• an integrated and inclusive approach to study and develop solutions in a collaborative and coordinated way using the expertise and capacities available in the EU (both at industry and government level), including dedicated national spending, will contribute to a better and sustainable closing of the capability gap in this field.