Airworthiness
EDA’s efforts in this field primarily focus on the Military Airworthiness Authorities (MAWA) Forum bringing together experts from each of the EDA participating Member States’ National Military Airworthiness Authorities with the objective of developing a harmonised approach to the regulation of military airworthiness and synergies in the area of airworthiness oversight. The forum already delivered a full set of European Military Airworthiness Requirements (EMARs) - non-mandatory standards available to Member States based on the airworthiness regulatory framework for civil aviation developed by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) - including for aircraft maintenance training. Once a harmonised European Military Airworthiness System will have been fully developed, further steps could be taken towards the creation of a European Military Joint Airworthiness Authorities Organisation.
Standardisation
The Agency’s general approach is to use civilian standards even for defence needs whenever and wherever possible. However, that rule has its limits because available standards, by far, do not always fit military needs and requirements. That’s where EDA comes in to see what can be done to develop missing standards. For instance, EDSTAR (the European Defence Standards Reference system) is managed by EDA to facilitate work in the area of defence standardisation.
Test & Evaluation
Cooperation and progressive harmonisation are also the recommended way forward for Member States’ Defence Test & Evaluation (DT&E) centres to improve synergies and avoid duplication. To that end, EDA initiated the European Defence Test and Evaluation Base (DTEB), a portal where national DT&E centres can coordinate their activities. The overarching ambition is to develop a coherent network of European Test Centres offering the full spectrum of Test & Evaluation capabilities needed in Europe. This notably entails fostering collaborative activities among test centres, creating networks of excellence and systematically relating them to EDA projects.
Ammunition testing and certification is another domain where EDA’s ASC Unit is involved in developing harmonised requirements, in particular through
ENNSA, the European Network of National Safety Authorities. The Agency has also initiated a
European Network on Electro Magnetic Effects Test & Evaluation capabilities Rationalisation (ENTER).