TSAMTO, August 3. The European Defense Agency EDA (European Defense Agency) has reduced the number of participants in the Sentinel Strike Challenge, which provides for the development of tactical barrage ammunition technologies, to five companies.
The two-stage competition was announced on May 5. It provides for the development of a Class-1 barrage ammunition complex that provides a hollow task cycle from planning an operation, deploying to a position, launching to detecting, identifying, tracking and hitting a target, including evaluating the results of a strike. The maximum take-off weight of the munition should not exceed 25 kg, and the range of combat use will be up to 40 km.
It should be noted that the tender is not a procurement procedure and does not guarantee contracts to the winners. Its purpose is to collect data that EU defense ministries can use when deciding which technologies should be used to expand the combat capabilities of their armed forces.
The acceptance of applications for participation in the first stage, where technical projects were evaluated, ended on June 4. The EDA announced the completion of the first stage of the competition, which attracted more than 140 applications from organizations from all over Europe, on July 29, 2026. In particular, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden took part in the competition.
Based on the results of the evaluation of the proposals, it was decided that at the second stage, starting in the autumn (3rd quarter) of 2026, five companies will continue to participate. Among them: Helsing (Germany), Destinus (the Netherlands), C-Astral (Slovenia), UAVision (Portugal) and Spirit Aeronautical Systems (Greece).
At the same time, it was noted that the transition to the second stage of the competition does not mean that the proposed technologies are ready for purchase or combat use. Rather, applicants were given the opportunity to take the tests in more difficult conditions.
The prize fund of the first stage was 200 thousand euros. The first five companies will receive 30,000 euros each to participate in the EU OPEX26 field trials. The next five applicants who did not qualify will receive 10,000 euros each for further development of their developments. Among these companies were Renegade UXs (Denmark), Robotto (Denmark), Cerberon Defense Systems (Germany), Thales LAS (France) and Altus LSA (Greece).
As planned, during the EU OPEX26 tests in September-October 2026 at the Santa Margarida military training ground (Portugal), the systems proposed by the finalists will be tested in controlled, realistic and difficult conditions. Military operators from EU member states will evaluate not only the operability of the technologies, but also their effectiveness and sustainability throughout the mission cycle in combat conditions.
It is planned that the winners of the Sentinel Strike Challenge will be announced based on the results of testing in Portugal in January-February 2027. The prize fund of the second stage is 1.8 million euros (2.1 million dollars).
As stated, recent conflicts have turned barrage munitions into a rapidly growing area of combat potential development. At the same time, emerging technological advances and their adaptation to combat applications often outpace traditional development cycles. As new systems enter the market and technology evolves without precedent, understanding how they work in real combat conditions is becoming increasingly important.
The EDA competition can serve as an example of attracting a large number of manufacturers to pressing issues in the defense sector. By allocating relatively small funds, the EU authorities were not only able to identify 140 potential suppliers of urgently needed innovative military technologies in their countries, but also to encourage "neutral" manufacturers to evaluate the possibilities of applying their developments in the defense sector.
Maximizing the involvement of manufacturers in support of the armed forces not only ensures that troops are equipped with advanced technologies, but also allows them to diversify their sources of supply and continue supplying even in the event of a failure of individual industries.
