EDA Tests Autonomous Systems Ahead of Operational Experimentation Campaign

As part of preparations for the Operational Experimentation (OPEX) campaign in Rome in June and July 2025, the European Defence Agency has carried out a series of system acceptance tests to assess the readiness of unmanned aerial and ground systems.

The OPEX campaign, hosted by the Italian Army, provides a platform to deploy autonomous systems in realistic operational settings. It focuses on testing advanced unmanned aerial and ground systems in field-like conditions, helping to accelerate their integration into future EU defence capabilities. Before taking part, however, each system must first demonstrate compliance with clearly defined technical, reliability, operational and safety standards.

That is why over the past weeks, EDA experts travelled across the European Union to evaluate the proposed solutions of six companies involved in the project: Beyond Vision from Portugal, ALTUS LSA from Greece, Schiebel from Austria, Alisys from Spain, Siec Badawcza Lukasiewicz PIAP from Poland, and ARX Robotics from Germany.

These tests represented a milestone in the campaign, ensuring that the selected systems are prepared to support the development and validation of future autonomous solutions for European defence logistics.

HEDI puts innovation to the test
Beyond its technical objectives, the OPEX Campaign is designed to serve as a strategic enabler for the rapid adoption of emerging technologies across the EU defence landscape.

EDA’s Hub for European Defence Innovation (HEDI) is bringing together industry innovators, operational end-users, and experts in an immersive, scenario-based environment, introducing a new EU-wide tool that accelerates the delivery of capabilities quickly, playing a role in making innovation frameworks operational and sharpening the technological edge of European defence.