The Executive Director of the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), Florian Guillermet, and the Executive Administration Director of the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d’Armement (OCCAR), Joachim Sucker, co-signed on 15 January 2025 in Bonn, Germany the first formal agreement between the two organisations to enhance the European aviation system’s safety by allowing the exchange of classified information on military programmes.
In the current geopolitical environment of conflict and rising tensions, civil-military cooperation is vital to help accelerate technological development in aviation and to efficiently manage the safety of specific military products throughout their life cycle. This has two key contexts:
- firstly, where military programmes are derived from civilian aircraft, it is important that airworthiness information can be exchanged to ensure the safety of both civil and military products; and
- secondly, for cases where the safety of aircraft or related systems interfaces with other air traffic, for example through the sharing of civil airspace or the interoperability with Air Traffic Management (ATM) and other related systems that are operated by civilian organisations.
EASA is committed to supporting military projects when appropriate and where there are clear responsibilities established for the organisations involved.
Background
OCCAR is an international organisation whose core business is the through-life management of complex, cooperative defence equipment programmes. Military programs in which EASA is already fully involved include the continued-airworthiness process of A400M as well as the certification of the Eurodrone engine. On that occasion, EASA recently hosted a Eurodrone propulsion meeting with OCCAR, the EASA Member States, and aviation industry groups.
