EU HYDEF Project Reaches “Preliminary Requirements Review” Milestone

Hypersonic defence EU HYDEF Project Reaches “Preliminary Requirements Review” Milestone

2026-09-11 Source: Press release Diehl Defence | Translated by AI 2 min Reading Time

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The European Hypersonic Defence Interceptor (EU HYDEF) project has successfully completed a major technical milestone with the conclusion of its Preliminary Requirements Review (PRR).

The “European Hypersonic Defence Interceptor” (EU HYDEF) project, co-financed by the European Union under the European Defence Fund (EDF) and by the participating countries (Belgium, Germany, Norway, Poland and Spain), has reached a significant technical milestone. On 25 and 26 August, the HYDEF consortium successfully completed the “Preliminary Requirements Review” (PRR) at the headquarters of Diehl Defence in Überlingen (Germany) on Lake Constance.

HYDEF is Europe’s first development programme for countering hypersonic threats. The aim is to develop an interceptor system capable of detecting and neutralising fast-flying, manoeuvring threats such as highly manoeuvrable hypersonic glide vehicles, hypersonic cruise missiles and manoeuvrable ballistic missiles (Theatre Ballistic Missiles). The consortium is led by Spanish Missile Systems (SMS) as project coordinator. Diehl Defence is responsible for the technical implementation of the system as technical coordinator.

The entire HYDEF consortium, including Diehl Defence and SMS, participated in the final technical milestone of the first phase under the leadership of OCCAR HYDEF PD. Representatives of the participating countries and national experts were also present on site, underscoring the project’s strong focus on Europe’s strategic defence priorities and the objective of strengthening technological sovereignty.

The PRR marks the technical conclusion of the current project phase. All objectives of this phase were achieved on schedule and in accordance with the required quality standards, paving the way for an accelerated design process towards HYDEF’s Initial Operational Capability (IOC).

The event served as an important platform for presenting and demonstrating key technologies required for the Initial Operational Capability. The technical areas presented included advanced seeker technology, stage separation mechanisms as well as critical electronic and aerodynamic technologies.

The PRR represents a decisive step in the project’s feasibility-oriented phase and focuses on validating the preliminary requirements for an endoatmospheric interceptor missile (operating within the Earth’s atmosphere). It confirms that the programme’s technical foundation has been robustly defined to meet the challenges posed by these threats.

With the successful completion of the PRR, the HYDEF consortium is maintaining its momentum towards achieving the technology readiness levels required for future operational deployment.

Building on this success, the HYDEF consortium intends to use the results of the first phase, in particular the preliminary IOC design and the demonstrated technological advances, within the framework of the EDF-2026-DA-ACC-AIRDEF-EATMI (EATMI2) project to continue expanding European guided missile defence capabilities.

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Date: 08.12.2025

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