J. (Jacques) Schaap

A bustling exhibition closed off NEDS2022 in Rotterdam Ahoy on Thursday 17 November. No fewer than 3,500 visitors, 170 exhibitors and 20 foreign delegations contributed to the most successful NEDS yet.

It is the capstone to a transatlantic week: the NL-US Defense and Space Industry Days in Washington DC, Oct. 13 and 14. As allies and partner countries at the political, military, research and business levels, the 110 attendees from the Netherlands and the United States had much to discuss, with a range of matchmaking sessions to follow up.

To give a concrete view into the world of European defence industrial collaboration, we present the case study of SEA Defence. The SEA Defence project, part of the European Defence Industrial Development Programme, was launched in December 2020. As part of the EU’s strategy of strengthening the European defence technological and industrial base, in addition to increasing the EU’s autonomy, SEA Defence is a 30-month long feasibility study that has the aim of compiling a roadmap of technologies to be developed and introduced into next-generation naval platforms.