PARIS — The Hydis project to develop a European interceptor against hypersonic threats settled on a concept based on a solid-propellant rocket motor, according to MBDA, Europe’s biggest missile maker, with the program’s steering committee validating the final concept review milestone on Friday.
The remaining year of the Hydis program will focus on advancing critical technologies to at least Technology Readiness Level 3, Europe’s Organisation for Joint Armament Co-Operation said in a separate statement on Friday. That level corresponds to experimental proof of concept.
Hydis is one of two European projects to develop a counter against hypersonic threats, competing with the Hydef program led by Germany’s Diehl Defence and coordinated by Spain’s SMS Sistemas de Misiles de España. The European Defence Fund plans to allocate €100 million ($114 million) for an endo-atmospheric interceptor as part of its 2026 work program, with only one of the proposals to be funded.
Completion of the final concept review is “a significant step forward in the development of a future European capability to counter hypersonic threats,” OCCAR said. The organization, which manages the program on behalf of France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, said the four countries validated “the most promising interceptor concept proposed by the Hydis industrial consortium.”
The interceptor will be designed to defeat threats including hypersonic glide vehicles, hypersonic cruise missiles and maneuvering ballistic missiles, and the concept was assessed against threat models developed by Italy’s research organization Centro Italiano di Ricerca Aerospaziale, France’s Onera and Dutch technology institute TNO.
The final concept review focused specifically on the terminal phase of interception by the kill vehicle, according to OCCAR, which said the program enters the next phase with a “clear path” toward technology maturation.
Avio worked on the architecture of the solid rocket motor propulsion, ArianeGroup and MBDA’s Roxel on the final interceptor stage control mechanism, and Lynred on the terminal infra-red sensor, according to MBDA, with the missile maker handling the integration into a coherent concept.
Thales provided performance data for naval and ground-sensor suite options, while GKN Fokker worked on integration of the ammunition into the MK41 naval launcher, MBDA said.
“This new milestone demonstrates the consortium’s full expertise in the fields of hypersonic and ballistic threats, backed by in-depth knowledge of air defense systems.” MBDA said in its statement on Friday.
The EDF has provided €80 million in funding for the three-year Hydis program, with the four partner countries jointly providing around €60 million. The largest share of EDF funds for Hydis has gone to MBDA, with more than €60 million allocated across seven MBDA entities in the program.
Meanwhile, Hydef has received €100 million from the EDF, and another €10 million from participating countries Belgium, Germany, Norway, Poland and Spain. Diehl is the biggest beneficiary of the European funding for Hydef, accounting for €34.7 million.
Hydef originally won the EDF competition to develop a hypersonic interceptor in 2022, with the European Commission funding Hydis as a second effort after objections from France and MBDA, which had already been working on hypersonic technology for years. MBDA presented its counter-hypersonic interceptor concept Aquila at the Paris Air Show in 2023.
Both programs are linked to the broader European project Twister to detect, track and counter hypersonic threats with space-based early warning and endo-atmospheric interceptors.
Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.