► EDF 2025: NAVANTIA strengthens its role in the European naval and defence industry with four new projects valued €146 million

Madrid, 13 May 2026.- Navantia strengthens its position as one of the leading players in the European naval defence industry following the European Commission’s publication of the projects selected under the 2025 call of the European Defence Fund (EDF). The Spanish company consolidates its role as an anchor company in collaborative R&D projects, leading key initiatives and taking part in strategic consortia that drive new capabilities and critical technologies for Europe’s defence sovereignty.

In this call, Navantia leads the E DOMINION project and participates in three additional major projects—MINERVA, SHIELD and ABYSSA—with a combined budget of €146 million, underscoring its central role in the European naval innovation ecosystem.

E DOMINION: towards the future European Digital Ship and the Naval Combat Cloud

Navantia leads E DOMINION (European Digitalisation Of Maritime Innovation for Naval Integrated Platforms and Combat Cloud Nodes), one of the most significant EDF 2025 projects in the naval domain. With a duration of 48 months, this programme lays the foundations for the future European Digital Ship by establishing a reference architecture and developing a Digital Platform for integrating advanced naval operational capabilities, including the Naval Combat Cloud, conceived as a key element for collaborative, multi domain operations.

This initiative enhances cybersecurity, interoperability, AI supported decision making and European cloud sovereignty. E DOMINION builds on the results of previous initiatives, continuing and expanding the developments of the EDINAF project, successfully completed in 2025, strengthening Europe’s position in naval digitalisation.

Innovation in energy, propulsion and subsea systems: MINERVA, ABYSSA and SHIELD

Alongside E DOMINION, Navantia participates in three additional projects covering critical areas for future naval capabilities:

MINERVA (Modular Integration of Naval Energy Systems for Resilient Vessels Application), focused on developing hybrid propulsion systems and advanced electrical architectures for naval vessels. The project accelerates the design of modular and resilient energy systems by combining modelling, simulation and testing, helping improve operational performance and the sustainability of future naval platforms.

SHIELD (Subsea Heterogeneous Integrated Ecosystem Link Development), aimed at creating a highly integrated unmanned subsea system (Unmanned Underwater Super System, UUSS) that combines autonomous vehicles, sensors and AI based microservices. The project seeks to strengthen the surveillance and security of European waters against growing threats through distributed, robust and scalable subsea architectures.

ABYSSA (Advanced Breakthrough Systems for SubSea Autonomy), a disruptive research action aimed at developing autonomous and resilient subsea systems capable of operating at great depths, beyond 6,000 metres. ABYSSA addresses critical challenges in navigation, energy, sensing, communications and persistence, with the goal of ensuring surveillance, threat detection and protection of strategic subsea infrastructure in hostile maritime environments.

Continuity and strategic coherence in European innovation

These new projects build on Navantia’s strong track record in previous EDF calls, in which the company has led key naval defence initiatives such as EDINAF, NEREUS, SWAT SHOAL, ADMIRABLE and OPTIMAS, as well as addressing the development of the future European Patrol Corvette (EPC) and participating in projects across multiple areas of technological innovation with naval defence applications, including HYDEF, EUROGUARD, E=MCM, SEACURE, E CUAS, d THOR, E NACSOS, EDOCC and Q Sing. Taken together, these efforts reflect a coherent and sustained strategy of investment in strategic technologies for European naval defence.

E DOMINION and NEREUS, both led by Navantia’s Systems business area, are supported by the PESCO 4E “Essential Elements of European Escort” initiative, led by the Spanish Navy, with Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden participating as Member States and Germany as an observing country. This alignment between the EDF and PESCO strengthens European strategic coherence and maximises the impact of collaborative R&D initiatives.

Commitment to technological sovereignty and European strategic autonomy

With its prominent participation in the EDF 2025 projects, Navantia reaffirms its commitment to developing advanced naval capabilities, European technological sovereignty and strategic autonomy in defence. The company continues to position itself as a partner of reference for Ministries of Defence and European industry, contributing decisively to building a safer, more resilient and technologically advanced Europe.

With the projects awarded in 2025, Navantia is now participating in 18 programmes funded by the EDF or its predecessors, including leading the European Patrol Corvette project for the design and construction of a European multi purpose corvette.