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

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

intergovernmental organisation An international organization, also known as an intergovernmental organization or an international institution, is an organization that is established by a treaty or other type of instrument governed by international law and possesses its own leg ...

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

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, 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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

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 Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

member states and/or

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

members

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, 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, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

participate in one or more OCCAR programmes without being formal members. Australia also participates in OCCAR as a non-member with a focus on the Boxer, Tiger ARH and MU-90 Impact platforms. In 2023 Australia became the first non-European country to act as a participating state as part of OCCAR when it signed onto the MU-90 In-service support program. In November 2023 the Netherlands voiced its intention to join OCCAR.

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 (Joachim Sucker since Feb 2023) 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 The Eurocopter Tiger is a four-blade, twin-engine attack helicopter which first entered service in 2003. It is manufactured by Airbus Helicopters (formerly Eurocopter), which arose from the merger of Aérospatiale's and DASA's respective helico ...

attack helicopter *

Eurodrone The European Medium Altitude Long Endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (MALE RPAS), or Eurodrone, is a twin-turboprop MALE UAV under development by Airbus, Dassault Aviation and Leonardo with a first flight expected by mid-2027. Orders f ...

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 European Secure Software-defined Radio (ESSOR) is a planned European Union (EU) Permanent Structured Cooperation project for the development of common technologies for European military software-defined radio systems, to guarantee the interoperabi ...

(ESSOR) *

COBRA COBRA or Cobra, often stylized as CoBrA, was a European avant-garde art group active from 1948 to 1951. The name was coined in 1948 by Christian Dotremont from the initials of the members' home countries' capital cities: Copenhagen (Co), Brussels ...

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

system * Multinational Space-based Imaging System (MUSIS) *

Night Vision Night vision is the ability to see in low-light conditions, either naturally with scotopic vision or through a night-vision device. Night vision requires both sufficient spectral range and sufficient intensity range. Humans have poor night v ...

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 Military, defence, security and aerospace sectors. The main product areas are r ...

and

Theon Sensors Theon may refer to: People with the name Given name or stage name * Theon (1st century BC), literary critic and lexicographer * Theon (rhetorician) (c. 500), teacher of Damascius * Theon, vocalist for Lovex * Theon of Alexandria (c. 335 – c. ...

Land vehicles

* Boxer multirole armoured vehicle

Missiles/Torpedoes

* 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 MBDA is a European multinational corporation specialized in the design, development and manufacturing of Missile, missiles and related systems.MU90 Impact The MU90 Impact is a Franco-Italian advanced lightweight anti-submarine torpedo of the third generation developed for the French Navy, French and Marina Militare, Italian navies, as well as for export. It is designed to outperform the United States ...

Ships

* FREMM Multimission frigates * Logistic Support Ships - ''Vulcano''-class logistic support ships for Italy and ''

Bâtiment ravitailleur de forces The bâtiments ravitailleurs de forces, or BRF, are a class of future fleet tankers that are to replace the units in French Navy service. Until January 2019, the programme was known as ''Flotte logistique'' (abbreviated FLOTLOG in military parl ...

'' 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 International organisations based in Bonn