PESCO PROJECTS

Essential Elements of European Escort (4E)

The 4E Project aims to develop the most important systems of any surface combatant that may be built in Europe from 2035 to 2045 covering five areas: combat system, communication and information system, navigation system, platform management system and Integration of System of Systems. This time frame is set on behalf of the gathered experience for the development of any major naval program for shipbuilding. Nevertheless, during the development of these systems there will be intermediate baselines that could be implemented in the European escorts that see the light before the final results of the project.

The project is aligned with the Focus Area EPC2S and the initial identified systems range from Antisurface Missile Defence, Electromagnetic Weapons, Directed Energy Weapons, Combat Systems, Passive sensoring (including passive radars), Smart Damage Control Systems, C4ISTAR  Multi-Domain combat cloud & Edge and Fog Computing supported, with Cyberdefence and Cyberattack capability, and Advanced Communication Systems  above and under the water, Astronomical Navigation Systems independent from satellite, Efficient Energy and Propulsion Green systems on board with a common fuel for the EU fleet, and a layer for integration of every developed system to configure each ship class as a system of systems. However, it is important to remark that these systems are examples of common systems for future European escorts, but those selected and included in the 4E project will be finally agreed by all participant nations.