In December  2008, six major European States signed their ESSOR Technical Arrangement and appointed OCCAR as the Contracting Authority,

and six prime European industries signed their ESSOR Shareholders Agreement and founded todays’ a4ESSOR, and all together signed the ESSOR Contract and gave birth to the ESSOR Program.

At today’s OCCAR-EDA bilateral in Bonn, OCCAR Director Arturo Alfonso-Meiriño and the Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency, Jorge Domecq, have exchanged letters describing the role of the EDA in support of the ESSOR Programme.
 

May 2018 saw the ESSOR Programme Division actively contribute to two important events in parallel: a "PESCO Workshop” organised  France and Italy in Paris on 24 and 25 May, and the Wireless Innovation Forum in Madrid, on 23 and 24 May.

The UK will re-join the BOXER Programme with the intention  to equip the Army with the 8x8 BOXER vehicles to modernise its vehicle's fleet and to fulfil the requirements of the Mechanised Infantry Vehicle (MIV) Programme.