OCCAR, at the core of European Defence cooperation. Interview with Adm. (ret) Matteo Bisceglia

Paolo Valpolini

In September 1998 France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom signed the OCCAR Convention, the acronym standing for Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d’Armement in French language, Organisation for Joint Armament Co-operation in English. That document entered into force in January 2001, therefore the organisation is in its 20th year of activity, its aim being the through life management of cooperative defence equipment programmes. In 2003 Belgium joined OCCAR, followed two years later by Spain, the organisation based in Bonn, Germany, counting now on six Member Nations. It works closely with the European Defence Agency (EDA) and the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), and is currently managing 14 land, naval and aviation programmes, with sites in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Luca Peruzzi interviewed Admiral (ret) Matteo Bisceglia, who took over from his predecessor, Mr. Arturo Alfonso Meiriño, on 12 September 2019.

We hope this interview will allow our readers to get a 360° view on what OCCAR is doing and on its key importance in managing many of the main multinational defence programmes currently underway in Europe. For readability purposes we split this interview into four sections, a general section on the OCCAR current situation and future commitments, and three sections dedicated respectively to land, naval and aviation and space programmes.

OCCAR: the Director’s view

OCCAR and Land Forces programmes

OCCAR and the Naval world

OCCAR Air and Space programmes

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