The Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d'ARmement was established by an Administrative Arrangement on 12th November 1996 by the Defence Ministers of France, Germany, Italy and the UK. Its aim is to provide more effective and efficient arrangements for the management of certain existing and future collaborative armament programmes.

The Defence Ministers of the four founding Nations went on to sign a Treaty, the "OCCAR Convention", which was subsequently ratified and came into force on the 28th January 2001. The Convention gives OCCAR its legal status, allowing it to place and manage contracts, and to employ its own staff. Belgium and Spain joined OCCAR, respectively in 2003 and 2005. The Netherlands, Luxembourg and Turkey are actually participating in a programme, without being members of the organisation.

The A400M tactical and strategic transport aircraft is currently the flagship programme of the organisation, which aims at becoming a centre of excellence in its business domain. This vision is underpinned by the implementation of a comprehensive management framework, comprising a Quality Management System, which attained the ISO 9001:2000 certification in July 2005.

History

	1993 Franco-German Declaration
	1995 Principles of Baden-Baden
	1996 Franco-German precursor team UK and Italy join precursor team Administrative Arrangement
	1997 Early staffing of Central Office
	1998 Signature of the OCCAR Convention
	2001 OCCAR Legal Status
	2003 Accession of Belgium
	2004 Re-organisation of Central Office
	2005 Accession of Spain