For HSU/UniBw Hamburg the program ERASMUS+ has become the evident framework for concluding, fostering, and developing the academic cooperation within the European Area of Higher Education. The university has by now some 21 bilateral ERASMUS+ accords. Three new agreements are being negotiated. The new English taught study program “B.Sc. Defense Systems” that will start with the academic year 2016/17 will certainly offer further new likelihoods for establishing ERASMUS+ accords. The framework of ERASMUS+ has been proven to be the first and foremost condition for initiating new partnerships and has, thus, become an instrument of strategic value for HSU/UniBw Hamburg in its continuing development. The interested prospective partners are primarily military institutions of higher learning and research in Europe. In how far this advance can be adjusted with the initiative EMILYO – Exchange of Military Young Officers (inspired by ERASMUS), that is supported by the European Security and Defense College (ESDC), is still an open question. The students of HSU/UniBw Hamburg are all service personnel of the German Federal Armed Forces, and, thus, the university proves to be a special case within ERASMUS+. All students are officer cadets or junior officers who receive a monthly salary according to their military rank. While being send abroad they all are entitled to receive additional financial support stipulated by the German Federal Travel Expenditure Law and are fully compensated. For these students there is no need for further financial support, yet, the ideationally support by ERASMUS+ is indispensable. The German Federal Armed Forces place special emphasis on acquiring English as a second language in the officer cadet training. During their military training before attending university the cadets are taking English language classes and this education will be continued during their studies at the university aiming at assuring an English proficiency level of SLP 3332. In contrast to the comparable comfortable financial situation of the students, financial support for the teaching and administrative staff is very welcome. This support is the precondition to make exchanges possible. But, where it has been proven to be rather simple to arouse the interest for going abroad among students, it has been over the years rather difficult to attract the interest of academic and administrative personnel for using actively the options and possibilities ERAMUS+ is offering. The program phase 2014-16 was successful in getting a number of academic teachers using the scheme and hopefully these will serve from now on as examples of best practice raising substantially the number of participants. For administrative staff, in particular for the military staff of the student regiment, the new program in Defense System will offer additional and attractive opportunities for joining. Our partner universities use actively the ERASMUS+ scheme and its financial provisions are essential for them to be able to enter into exchanges with HSU/UniBw Hamburg. Unfortunately, at HSU/UniBw Hamburg no student has shown an interest in going to France in the last three years. This trend may be explained by the special focus of the German Federal Armed Forces on acquiring English language proficiency. In contrast the French partner universities of HSU/UniBw Hamburg use actively the chances and opportunities ERAMSUS+ is offering for sending students and staff to Hamburg. It was a conscious gesture by the French officer school École Speciale Militaire St. Cyr Coëtquidan to institute a bilateral ERASMUS+ accord with HSU/UniBw Hamburg in 2016 the commemorative year of “100 Years of the Battle of Verdun”. The necessary endeavor for the coming years is to foster a better understanding within HSU/UniBw Hamburg of the qualitative aspects the program ERASMUS+ is offering to bring the university forward strategically. The opportunities by structuring the cooperation of student exchanges and cooperation in academic teaching to achieve strategic partnerships und to place HSU/UniBw Hamburg within a European network is generally not very well appreciated within the university. The introduction of the new English taught program “B.Sc. Defense Systems” will start a development of a strategic quality pushing the university into this direction. Another challenge will be to adjust the academic Master programs better for opening opportunities for studying abroad under the ERASMUS+ scheme. Especially in the field of business administration and economics this requirement is very well obvious already today. Another wish would be to add Spanish universities to the partner portfolio of HSU/UniBw Hamburg.