Kick-Off for BEAST: Shaping the Future of European Air Combat Capabilities
After having been picked winner of the 2024 EDF call for a concept study on advanced air-to-air missiles in summer 2025, the BEAST project consortium successfully completed its kick-off meeting on November 25, 2025. ‘Boosting European Advanced Missile System Technology’ (BEAST) targets the joint European development and procurement of a modular future short-range missile.
Within the BEAST project, FlySight contributes its expertise and know-how in the development and implementation of Digital Twin technology.
The kick-off took place at the Representation of the State of Baden-Württemberg to the EU in Brussels. It involved not only the project partners and the Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space’s (DG DEFIS) Project Officers, but also representatives of BEAST partners’ home countries as well as the Project Coordinator of the associated PESCO project ‘Future Short-Range Missile’ (FSRM). These participations underline the strategic importance of the undertaking and the synergies between EDF, PESCO, and the member states’ efforts aligned with industry.
In fact, the objective of PESCO FSRM, to pave the way for a new generation of ITAR-free missiles for the 2030th, is now being implemented by the BEAST project. The ambitious aim of the EDF project is to lay the foundation for the joint European development and procurement of a modular future short-range missile. Modularity is considered a key requirement for the coming years, in order to develop rapidly and cost-efficiently a new family of missiles for air-to-air, air-to-ground and ground-based air defence applications.
Kicking off the BEAST project represents an important step towards superior European capabilities and technological sovereignty.
About EDF BEAST
BEAST is composed of three project phases. The first will analyze the future air combat environment and capture critical requirements involving experts from European member states. The second will mature relevant key technologies to enable performance improvements and new capabilities. In the third phase, BEAST will generate modular missile concepts, evaluate them against the requirements, and down-select the concepts in order to build a robust roadmap for a development program.
BEAST is funded by the European Defence Fund (EDF) under its 2024 work program with approximately 35 million euros. Coordinated by Diehl Defence, the project represents a significant European collaboration. BEAST proudly brings together a powerful consortium of 21 partners from 12 European countries. Major industry players join forces with 11 innovative small and medium enterprises (SME) and 3 research establishments. By doing so, the consortium is able to cover the full spectrum of missile relevant fields of expertise. Committed to cross-border cooperation, the EDF project will strengthen Europe’s defence industrial base.
BEAST is ready to set new standards!
BEAST is funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement no. 101224302. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
This document was prepared and circulated by DIEHL, the lead coordinator of the consortium.
