Sener Aerospace is at the European forefront of hypersonic missiles
The Spanish company Sener Aerospace, headed by José Julián Echevarría, has achieved what is undoubtedly the greatest international success in its short history as an independent legal entity of the Sener Group, the latter founded in 1956 and present in the space, naval, infrastructure, energy and defence sectors.
In the first competitive tender called by the European Defence Fund of the European Union, the hypersonic interceptor project led by Sener Aerospace, backed by a cohesive multinational consortium, was the winner over the project proposed by the giants of the European defence sector.
From the point of view of Sener Aerospace's General Director of Defence, Rafael Orbe, the merit lies in "the quality of our candidacy, the rigour of the documentary approach and the solidity of the technical offer, which have merited a much higher evaluation than that presented by other alternatives".
The consequence of all of the above has been clearly reflected. The project named EU HYDEF - an acronym for EUropean HYpersonic DEFense Interceptor - has received the largest amount of financial support awarded by Brussels to the 61 winning collaborative research and development initiatives for civil and military applications.
The importance of the proposal led by the Spanish company is such that the European Union has decided to allocate all of the 100 million euros allocated to air and missile defence to the EU HYDEF project. After signing the mandatory agreements, Brussels will release the first 28 million euros to the consortium in 2023 and the rest in the following year.
But what is the importance of EU HYDEF? Its relevance is closely related to the changing geostrategic landscape in which the world is immersed, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the positioning of China on the one hand, and the United States, NATO and the European Union on the other.
One of the main factors disrupting the unstable balance of military power has been the entry into combat of new, and in some cases disruptive, weapons systems. This is the case of different models of hypersonic missiles fired by Russia, for example the Avangard, which Moscow claims flies at Mach 20 and is capable of reaching Mach 27, i.e. 27 times the speed of sound, more than 33,000 kilometres per hour. It is therefore very difficult to detect, track, shoot down and prevent it from doing damage.
Brussels has taken action and decided to sponsor studies and design to reduce the risks in developing a highly manoeuvrable European hypersonic interceptor. The purpose of the EU initiative is set out in the EU HYDEF project, which, as summarised by Rafael Orbe, aims to establish the basis for developing "a European hypersonic demonstrator to become a deterrent product".
The hypersonic interceptor must house advanced sensors of all kinds, have efficient actuators for high manoeuvrability and be endo-atmospheric. The latter means that its range must be within the atmosphere, i.e. below 1,000 kilometres above the Earth's surface. And it must be available "to counter threats beyond 2035", the Brussels demand stresses.
In short, Brussels aims to encourage 'the European defence industry to take on the complete development of a defensive instrument with the capacity to protect both the citizens and the territory of the old continent from high-speed aerial threats', summarises Sener Aerospace's Director General for Defence.
Who are the members of the EU HYDEF consortium? There are 13 European companies and institutions, six of them Spanish: Escribano E&M, GMV and Sener Aerospace, which form the SMS alliance, an acronym for Spanish Missile System. The credentials presented by the project coordinator are more than 20 years of being present in the missile field.
Suffice it to say that Sener Aerospace is the design authority for the actuator control system of the Iris-T and Meteor air-to-air missiles of high speed and manoeuvrability and that its technology is on board the KEPD 350 Taurus air-to-ground cruise missile, the RBS-70 NG surface-to-air short-range missile of the Swedish manufacturer Saab and the NSM anti-ship missile of the Norwegian Kongsberg.
The company headed by Angel Escribano is developing vision technologies in the visible and infrared spectra and guidance and navigation systems for smart munitions, while GMV's defence branch, headed by Manuel Peréz Cortés, is contributing its robotics, simulation and critical software technologies essential for missile guidance, navigation and control. They are joined by Instalaza, the National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA) and Navantia, with complementary technological capabilities and decades of experience in the development, testing and certification of defence products.
The other seven are Germany's Diehl, which specialises in missile development; Sweden's Ruag Space, which focuses on aerostructures; Norway's Nammo, which focuses on propulsion; two Polish institutes, the Air Force Technology Institute and the Lukasiewicz Research Network Aviation Institute; Belgium's National Aerospace Construction Company (SONACA); and the Czech engineering company LK. The generic contribution of each entity is detailed in the project.
From Rafael Orbe's perspective, three keys have been key to the victory of the EU HYDEF initiative sponsored by the European consortium he heads: "the technical proposal, the firm commitment of Sener Aerospace and its partners to be at the heart of major European defence projects, and the institutional support, which has been felt".
Sener Aerospace's hypersonic interceptor project has competed with and surpassed that of the coalition of companies led by MBDA France, one of the companies that make up the MBDA company. Incorporated in 2001, with a shareholding made up of Airbus (37.5 %), the British BAE Systems (37.5 %) and the Italian Leonardo (25 %), and although MBDA is leading the Twister multi-purpose hypersonic missile initiative within the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) initiative, its Aquila project has not convinced Brussels and has been rejected in the first call for proposals from the European Defence Fund.
