SESIOP – Single European Sky InterOPerability

General Information

Short Name: SESIOP
Title: Single European Sky InterOPerability
Duration: 24 Months
Type: EDF Research Actions / EDF-2022-RA-C4ISR-AIRC2
Project Start Day: 1 December 2023
Project Coordinator: Airbus Defense & Space SAS, France
Project Factsheet: https://defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu/system/files/2023-06/SESIOP-Factsheet_EDF22.pdf

Budget: ~19M €

SESIOP is the first EDF (European Defence Fund, Work Program 2022, GAP-101121440) project addressing civil-military and military-military interoperability in the context of the SES (Single European Sky) regulation and the ensuing improvements in the civil domain.

The main objective of the SESIOP project is to study and provide a technical solution for information and data exchanges between cross-border military C2 (Command & Control) systems and cooperating civil-military ATC (Air Traffic Control) systems. The approach mainly consists of a paper study, aiming to analyze the feasibility of the proposed concept via four main steps:

• Deep analysis of the current “as is” situation including workshops with national MoDs (Ministries of Defense) and Air Forces.
• Definition of Interoperability Interface Requirements for Military and Civil Centers.
• Design of an efficient and exhaustive Architectural Interface Model.
• Partial test for risk reduction that will allow assessing feasibility of the architectural interoperability model and its selected parameters.

The SESIOP project consortium is: 7 large companies [Airbus SAS (ADF), Airbus GmbH (ADG), Indra, Leonardo, Thales LAS, Thales Hellas, EDISOFT], 2 mid-caps (ElsisPro, ERA), 8 small-/medium-sized enterprises (42Solutions, Arbit, DeepBlue, Enersec, Indra Avitech, LuxTrust, SpikaTech, TeleplanGlobe), 1 research institute (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland), 3 Academia (Aarlborg University, Ecole Nationale de l’Aviation Civile, Hellenic Air Force Academy). The 21 partners of the consortium come from 14 European Member States and Norway. The Greek partners are HAFA and Thales Hellas, while the Coordinator is Airbus SAS.

HAFA’s Role and Tasks

The members of HAFA’s research group are involved in the following tasks:

• Assisting in capturing the operational needs and requirements in collaboration with THALES Hellas, HAFGS, and HCAA. Contribution to the definition of the relevant use cases.
• Contribution to the investigation, specification, and assessment of certain security aspects in the field of civil-military and military-military information exchange.
• Acting as interface with the Hellenic MoD and national ANSP, in order to identify, collect, unify, and homogenize civil-military and military-military interoperability needs and requirements.
• Contribution to the investigation, specification, and assessment of certain security aspects of cross-domain data/information exchanges towards the development of secure gateways and procedures for civil-military and military-military interoperability.
• Contribution to the definition of the architecture of civil-military and military-military exchange models taking into account national needs and specificities, as well as security related requirements.
• Contribution to designing, describing, and reviewing the testing/validation plan and the risk-reduction action plan for demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed solutions.
• Contribution to the deliverables: D1.1 “Project Plan”, D1.2-D1.6 “Progress Reports”, D1.7 “Final Report”, D1.8 “Interim Dissemination Report”, D1.9 “Final Dissemination Report”, D1.10 “Special Report in R-Action”, D2.1 “Customer Needs Analysis Document”, 2 “Use-Case Description”, D3.1 “IOP Requirements Analysis Document”, D3.2 “SWIM-IT Use Analysis Document”, D3.3 “Security Constraints Analysis Document”, D4.1 “Design of Interoperability Model Analysis Document – High Level SDD (Civil-Mil Exchange)”, D4.2 “Design of Interoperability Model Analysis Document – High Level SDD (Mil-Mil Exchange)”, D5.1 “Model Validation Plan”, D5.2 “Testing Report”, D5.3 “Assessment Report”

Events

SESIOP Work Package #1 Kick of Meeting [Airbus SAS, Paris, France]
The kick-off meeting of Work Package #1 (Project Management) was organized by Airbus SAS and took place on 14 December 2023, in Elancourt, France.

SESIOP Work Package #2 Kick of Meeting [Airbus SAS, Paris, France]
The kick-off meeting of Work Package #2 (Operational Needs) was organized by Airbus SAS and took place on 15 January 2024, in Elancourt, France.

SESIOP Work Package #2 Workshop [HAFA, Athens, Greece]
As part of the Work Package #2 (Operational Needs) regarding the definition of needs and interoperability requirements of air-traffic control/management systems/processes, a full-day workshop was conducted at HAFA’s premises on 23 April 2024, with the participation of Officers from the Hellenic Air Force General Staff (HAFGS), representatives from the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA), as well as the members of the SESIOP Project Team of Hellenic Air Force Academy (HAFA) and Thales Hellas.

SESIOP Work Package #3 Kick of Meeting [Leonardo, Rome, Italy]
The kick-off meeting of Work Package #3 (Interoperability Requirements) was organized by Leonardo and took place on 14-15 May 2024, in Rome, Italy.

SESIOP Work Packages #2 and #3 Workshop [Thales Hellas, Athens, Greece]
A workshop meeting was held in Athens on 11-13 September 2024, organized by Thales Hellas, where the deliverable documents for the Work Package #2 and the progress of the tasks for Work Package #3 were thoroughly discussed.

SESIOP Work Package #4 Kick of Meeting [Indra, Madrid, Spain]
The kick-off meeting of Work Package #4 (Design of Interoperability Model) was organized by Indra and took place on 14-15 January 2025, in Madrid, Spain.

SESIOP Work Package #4 Workshop and Work Package #5 Kick of Meeting [Airbus SAS, Paris, France]
A workshop meeting for evaluating the progress of Work Package #4 (Design of Interoperability Model) and the kick-off meeting of Work Package #5 (Model Validation) were organized by Airbus SAS and took place on 24-26 June 2025, in Elancourt, France.

SESIOP Final Meeting and Dissemination Event [Airbus SAS, Paris, France]
The final meeting for preparing the deliverables of Work Package #5 (Model Validation) and for disseminating the results of the project was organized by Airbus SAS and took place on 18-19 November 2025, in Elancourt, France.

Dissemination

The main objective of the dissemination task was to ensure SESIOP results reached all interested stakeholders, fostering their interest and integrating their recommendations. To achieve this, the project activities were driven by four high-level objectives:

• Raising awareness about progress and findings.
• Generating understanding of the results.
• Engaging stakeholders to foster feedback and future use.
• Ensuring impact and take-up by key decision-makers.

The project implemented internal and external dissemination strategies aligned with the project objectives. This included the production of dissemination material, conference contributions, and targeted stakeholder workshops. Efficient links to relevant European and international research activities, including EDA and SESAR projects, were established and maintained throughout the project lifecycle.

During the execution of the project, papers/posters have been presented at the following events:

HAFA SESIOP Project Team

Panagiotis PAPAKANELLOS [Scientific Director]
Associate Professor
Division of Electronics, Electric Power, Telecommunications

Panagiotis KARAMPELAS
Associate Professor
Division ofInformatics and Computers

Christos PAVLATOS
Associate Professor
Division of Informatics and Computers

Maria BARBAROSOU
Laboratory Personnel
Division of Electronics, Electric Power, Telecommunications

Andreas KYRIAZIS
Laboratory Personnel
Division of Thermodynamics, Propulsion and Power Systems

Christina AIDINIDOU
Deputy Manager of Postgraduate studies and Research Department
Deanery

Georgios KLADIS
Teaching Personnel under Contractual Status
Division of Automatic Control, Aerospace Technology, Defense Systems and Operations