EICACS: Advancing Interoperability and Collaboration in Europe’s Future Air Combat Landscape

Over the past months, the EICACS (European Initiative for Collaborative Air Combat Standardization) project has continued to progress across technological, operational, and strategic dimensions—strengthening Europe’s pathway toward connected, interoperable, and secure air combat systems. Through active participation in key international events, continuous consortium coordination, and contributions to cutting-edge research, the project is steadily building the foundation for the next generation of collaborative defence capabilities.

EICACS at the EASN 2025 Conference: Establishing the Framework for Collaborative Air Combat

At this year’s EASN 2025 Conference in Madrid, Miguel Enríquez Arosa and Raquel Delgado-Aguilera Jurado presented “EICACS: A Standard Framework for Collaborative Air Combat.”

The presentation highlighted how EICACS is shaping the technical and conceptual underpinnings necessary for:

• Interoperability across national systems
• Secure information exchange
• Network-enabled collaboration between platforms

By transforming standalone assets into a unified force, EICACS contributes to Europe’s ability to operate collectively across complex and contested environments. Events like EASN continue to play a vital role in aligning academia, research, and industry around shared defence priorities.

General Assembly at Dassault Aviation: Aligning Progress for the Next Phase

The EICACS General Assembly took place at Dassault Aviation headquarters in Paris, bringing together partners from across Europe.

The consortium reviewed:

• Progress across all technical activities
• Coordination needs for upcoming milestones
• Integration pathways for standardization efforts

The session reinforced the project’s commitment to shaping interoperable, secure, and intelligent air combat systems. Through coordinated development, EICACS supports a harmonised framework that strengthens Europe's operational cohesion and technological leadership.

AI Research Contributions: EICACS at IJCAI 2025

Representing the EICACS ecosystem, Thibault Lahire (Dassault Aviation) presented his work at IJCAI 2025 in Montreal.

His research, “Rule-Based Coordination Strategies for Protection in Multi-Agent Defense Scenarios,” examined:

• How rule-based systems can guide coordinated defensive behaviour
• Approaches for managing multiple agents in complex environments
• Pathways for integrating intelligent decision-making frameworks

This contribution reflects the project’s long-term objective of embedding trustworthy, high-performance AI into mission-critical systems—supporting more autonomous and collaborative future air combat operations.

Strengthening Community Engagement: Polls, Insights & Updates

The EICACS LinkedIn page remains fully active, regularly sharing:

• “Did You Know?” knowledge snippets
• Interactive polls and results
• Highlights from research activities, events, and project milestones

These initiatives help grow a knowledgeable community around collaborative air combat standardization, encouraging dialogue between experts, stakeholders, and the broader defence ecosystem.

Follow the project on LinkedIn to stay connected with upcoming insights and developments.

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.