The Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (French: ''Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d'ARmement''; OCCAR) is a

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an intergovernmental organisation that facilitates and manages collaborative armament programmes through their lifecycle between the governments of

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

, and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

History

ImageSize = width:280 height:270 PlotArea = left:50 right:0 bottom:10 top:10 DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1993 till:2005 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1993 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:5 start:1993 PlotData= Color:yellow mark:(line,black) align:left fontsize:M shift:(0,-3) # shift text to right side of bar # there is no automatic collision detection, fontsize:XS # so shift texts up or down manually to avoid overlap shift:(25,-10) at:2005 shift:15,-6 text: Accession of Spain at:2004 shift:15,-6 text: Re-organisation of Central Office at:2003 shift:15,-6 text: Accession of Belgium at:2001 shift:15,-6 text: OCCAR Legal Status at:1998 shift:15,-6 text: Signature of the Convention at:1997 shift:15,-6 text: Early staffing of Central Office at:1996 shift:15,-6 text: Franco-German precursor team at:1995 shift:15,-6 text: Principles of Baden-Baden at:1993 shift:15,-6 text: Franco-German Declaration

OCCAR was established on 12 November 1996 by the Defence Ministers of

and the

. Legal status was not achieved, however, until January 2001 when the parliaments of the four founding states ratified the OCCAR Convention. Other European nations may join OCCAR, subject to their actual involvement in a substantive collaborative equipment programme involving at least one OCCAR partner and ratification of the OCCAR Convention.

and

joined the organisation in respectively 2003 and 2005. Other states can participate to OCCAR programmes without becoming a member state. Currently the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

member states and/or

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...

members

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

participate in one or more OCCAR programmes without being formal members.

Structure

The highest decision-making body within OCCAR as corporate organisation is the Board of Supervisors (BoS). Each OCCAR programmes is supervised by a Programme Board (strategic decisions) and a Programme Committee (operational decisions). The programmes are executed by the OCCAR Executive Administration (OCCAR-EA) in accordance with the decisions of the supervisory bodies. OCCAR-EA is headed by the OCCAR Director (Matteo Bisceglia since September 2019) and consists of a Central Office and the Programme Divisions. OCCAR-EA employs over 300 staff members.

Current programmes

The 16 programmes currently managed by OCCAR are the following:

Aircraft

* Airbus A400M Atlas turboprop military transport aircraft * Eurocopter Tiger attack helicopter * Eurodrone or European Medium Altitude Long Endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (MALE RPAS) * Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport Fleet (MMF)

Intelligence and communications

* European Secure Software-defined Radio (ESSOR) * COBRA

counter-battery radar A counter-battery radar (alternatively weapon tracking radar or COBRA) is a radar system that detects artillery projectiles fired by one or more guns, howitzers, mortars or rocket launchers and, from their trajectories, locates the position on ...

system * Multinational Space-based Imaging System (MUSIS) * Night Vision Capability - 2021 acquisition of 9,550 units for Belgium and Germany, from a consortium of

Hensoldt Hensoldt AG ''(HENSOLDT)'' is a multinational corporation headquartered in Germany which focuses on sensor technologies for protection and surveillance missions in the defence, security and aerospace sectors. The main product areas are radar, ...

and Theon Sensors

Land vehicles

* Boxer multirole armoured vehicle

Missiles

* FSAF & PAAMS surface-to-air anti-missile systems * Future Tactical Air-to-Surface Missile (''Missile Air-Sol Tactique Futur'', MAST-F) - under development for French Tiger III by MBDA

Ships

* FREMM Multimission frigates * Logistic Support Ships - ''Vulcano''-class logistic support ships for Italy and ''Bâtiment ravitailleur de forces'' for France * Maritime Mine Counter Measures (MCMM) * ''Thaon di Revel''-class offshore patrol vessel (''Pattugliatore Polivalente d'Altura,'' PPA'')'' * U212 Near Future Submarine

References

External links

*
OCCAR Convention
{{Authority control International military organizations International organizations based in Europe Bodies of the Common Security and Defence Policy