Integrated Maritime and Seabed Defence
EU joint project for maritime and seabed defence, including protection of undersea infrastructure.
Integrated Maritime and Seabed Defence secured a place among the EU's first common-interest defence projects on 28 September 2026, making the naval project, with an estimated size of €43bn to €72bn by 2045, eligible for EDIP co-funding.
Last refreshed: 1 October 2026
Timeline for Integrated Maritime and Seabed Defence
Mentioned in: EU picks DECODER drone project for EDIP
Drones: Industry & DefenceBackground
Integrated Maritime and Seabed Defence (IMSD) is an EU joint naval project to build a federated European maritime and seabed defence architecture. the Commission's July 2026 proposal rests it on three pillars: maritime domain awareness, naval combat and interdiction, and underwater and seabed warfare.
Its scope covers joint procurement of naval platforms and of underwater and unmanned systems, plus protection of ports, offshore installations, undersea cables and pipelines. The proposal listed 17 participants, including Norway and Ukraine.
Approval by the Council on 28 September put IMSD in line for European Defence Industry Programme money. The €325m pot it shares with four other projects is a small fraction of its own envelope, so most of the naval spending will come from national budgets.