The Single European Sky (SES) initiative aims at achieving improved efficiency, increased capacity, enhanced aviation safety, diminished environmental impact of flights and reduced costs of air navigation services. It is of crucial importance in order to cope with sustained air traffic growth while at the same time ensuring safe operations. Although SES does not apply to military operations and training, civil and military aviation activities are tightly interlinked, as they share the same airspace.
In 2010, the European Defence Agency (EDA) was tasked by Member States to work on the implications of SES and the Single European Sky ATM Research programme (SESAR) for the European air forces.