European defence standardisation contributes to the advancement of joint and collaborative defence capabilities and serves as a strategic instrument for bolstering cooperation between EDA participating Member States. It stands as a critical enabler for an efficient European defence equipment market, fortifying the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB). EDA standardisation activities support these efforts by referencing Best Practice Standards in the European Defence Standards Reference System (EDSTAR) with the overarching goal of harmonising standards across Member States. As a critical enabler for cooperation in Europe, European Defence Standardisation is as an integral element of any defence activities.
The overall AS standardisation challenge is the selection of the most relevant standards and the development of new standards when deemed necessary with the following principle: “use civilian standards as much as possible and military standards when necessary”. Defence standardisation efforts should adopt and align with civilian standards as much as possible to facilitate fast adoption of existent ones and avoid the need to comply with different standards covering similar technological aspects.
However, bearing in mind that some standardisation elements are purely related to military activities, or cover critical military aspects, defence players must ensure that the standardisation of these aspects is effective to foster interoperability between MS. In this sense, there is the need to define where and how civilian standards apply to military AS, to identify where civilian standards do not suffice nor comply with military requirements and specificities, and to analyse if new standards for both defence and civilian application should be developed and adopted.
The fragmentation of the defence market, divergent approaches to standardisation and the lack of standardisation in the field of R&D are some of the challenges that hamper the implementation of a global approach to the standardisation of AS.
Harmonising the position of Member States on AS standardisation is challenging but a fundamental prerequisite to ensure a common method for identifying, developing, and implementing AS-related standards. It will also promote the use of the EDSTAR as a reference best-practice standards for the main defence players, and encourage collaboration between industries, academia, governments, and EU institutions, bringing together stakeholders from different sectors to discuss, identify existing standards and develop new ones.
Considering standardisation activities systematically, in all phases, from research and technology activities, development, and procurement, through the entire lifecycle of AS, and linking standardisation activities to all relevant EU initiatives, such as the EDF and PESCO, is essential for success and for the coherence of AS standardisation activities.
The European Defence Standards Reference System (EDSTAR) is the EDA central Database containing references to “Best-practice” standards (BPS) in support of European security and defence programmes, organisations, and agencies, with a focus on the following users:
- Programme Managers and experts in security and defence procurement organisations (national and multinational), who have to select standards when drafting staff requirements or technical specifications for defence capabilities all along their life cycles;
- Programme Managers and experts in industry who recommend to their customers standards for a given security and defence contract or who have to specify standards to be implemented by their subcontractors.