Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation
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2014 Logo of OCCAR
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| Abbreviation | OCCAR-EA |
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| Type | Intergovernmental organisation |
| Purpose | European armament cooperation |
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Director
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Timothy Rowntree |
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Staff
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255 (June 2015) |
| Website | www |
The Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (French: Organisation conjointe de coopération en matière d'armement;OCCAR) is a European intergovernmental organization which facilitates and manages collaborative armament programmes through their lifecycle between the nations of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
History
OCCAR was established on 12 November 1996 by the Defence Ministers of France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. Legal status was not achieved, however, until January 2001 when the parliaments of the four founding nations ratified the OCCAR Convention. Other European nations may join OCCAR, subject to their actual involvement in a substantive collaborative equipment programme involving at least one OCCAR partner and ratification of the OCCAR Convention. Belgium and Spain joined the organisation in respectively 2003 and 2005.
Other States can participate to OCCAR programmes without becoming a Member State. Currently the EU or NATO members Turkey, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Finland, Sweden and Poland participate in one or more OCCAR programmes without being a formal member.[1]
Structure
The highest decision-making body within OCCAR as corporate organisation is the Board of Supervisors (BoS). The OCCAR programmes are each supervised by a Programme Board (strategic decisions) and a Programme Committee (operational decisions). The programmes are executed by the OCCAR Executive Administration (OCCAR-EA) in accordance with the decisions of the supervisory bodies. OCCAR-EA is headed by the OCCAR director and consists of a Central Office and the Programme Divisions. OCCAR-EA employs approximately 240 staff members.
Current programmes
The 11 programmes currently managed by OCCAR are the following:
- A400M (tactical and strategical airlift)
- Boxer (armoured fighting vehicle) (multi role armoured vehicle)
- COBRA - a counter-battery radar system
- ESSOR (European Secure Software defined Radio)
- FREMM (Multimission frigates)
- FSAF - PAAMS munition (surface-to-air anti-missile system)
- LSS (Logistic Support Ship)
- MMCM (Maritime Mine Counter Measures)
- MUSIS (MUltinational Space based Imaging System)
- PPA (Multipurpose Patrol Ship)
- Eurocopter Tiger (helicopter)
