Intracom Defense (IDE) has signed a €42 million project funding agreement with the European Defense Fund (EDF) as Coordinator of the winning European consortium following a competitive process involving leading European manufacturers.
The project is the ACTUS ("Advanced Capabilities & Certification for Tactical UAV Systems") project of 48 months duration, under the EDF 2023 program, which aims at the technological development of the European Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), LOTUS and PATROLLER, in order to meet the common operational requirements of the Ministries of Defence of six EU Member States (Belgium, France, Greece, Cyprus, Finland, Sweden, Greece and Norway) and additionally Norway. The contract includes the study, design, prototyping, testing, evaluation, certification and efficiency improvement of European-built Tactical Remote Piloted Aerial Systems (T-RPAS).
"The implementation of the program will increase the resilience of tactical UAVs and deliver significant improvements in airworthiness in demanding operational conditions, where their multiple capabilities combined with their reliability make them economically and operationally suitable platforms for a wide range of operational missions," said IDE's CEO, Mr. George Truellinos, during the inaugural meeting of the ACTUS program, held in Athens between 17-18 December 2024. The meeting was attended by involved ministries of defense and the project consortium partners and laid the foundations for the successful implementation of the program. All participants expressed their satisfaction with the outcome of the meeting, and work has already started at an intensive pace.
The Ministry of Defence of our country, as well as the Ministries of Defence of Belgium, France, Cyprus, Sweden, Finland, and Norway, are not only co-financing the project but will also contribute to its completion in a very constructive way. The assistance of the Greek Ministry of National Defence in the above effort is crucial, as it will also be the project manager of the ACTUS project.
