Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation

OCCAR (Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en Matière d' Armement, German: Organization for the Joint Armament Cooperation ) is an international organization that on 12 November 1996 by an agreement between the defense ministers of Italy, France, the Federal Republic of Germany and the United Kingdom for the efficient and effective management was established by common existing and future armaments projects. The headquarters are located in Bonn. There are entertained with additional offices in Paris, Toulouse, Seville, Rome and La Spezia. Currently, the OCCAR has approximately 235 employees.

By ratifying the OCCAR - State Agreement ("the Convention " ) by all Member States on January 28, 2001 became the OCCAR own legal personality.

Other European countries can join OCCAR, if they are involved substantially on at least one OCCAR program and the OCCAR Convention ratify. Belgium and Spain joined the OCCAR 2003 and 2005.

States also have the opportunity to participate in a program without being a member state of OCCAR. Currently take the Netherlands, Turkey, Sweden, Finland, Poland and Luxembourg participated in various programs.

The Board of Supervisors ( " BOS " / Supervisory ) is the highest decision-making body of OCCAR as a whole organization and is occupied by the Ministries of Defence of the Member States. The individual programs are "Boards programs " (strategic decisions) and " programs Comittees " supervised by program-specific (operational decisions). The " OCCAR Executive Administration" (OCCAR -EA) is the executive authority that performs the programs in accordance with the decisions of the supervisory bodies. OCCAR -EA is headed by the OCCAR Director ( "Director " ) and consists of the central office ( " Central Office ") and the program departments ( "Programs Division ").

The following eight programs are currently being conducted by the OCCAR: