Brussels, 19/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - Several European countries, including France and Germany, undertook, on Tuesday 19 November, to launch common programmes on drones, with a view to producing the next generation of remotely piloted aircraft systems as of 2020, on a European scale.
Meeting in Brussels, the defence ministers approved a series of development projects for medium altitude, long endurance (MALE) drones, one of the most obvious shortfalls of the European defence industry.
The launch of these programmes should be validated by the EU heads of state and government during their December summit, which will be partly devoted to defence.
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian explained after the meeting that “if Europe wants to keep a strategic capability, then countries must pool together their capabilities and their actions in a pragmatic manner”. He welcomed the creation of the “drone users' club” for cooperating in training, certification, logistics, maintenance and the development of remotely piloted aircraft. The “club” is initially made up of seven countries: Germany, France, Spain, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland. Furthermore, the European Defence Agency (EDA) has been entrusted with a joint research programme on the development of dual use drones, for both military and civilian purposes, as such aircraft could prove highly useful in the surveillance of border zones or seas such as the Mediterranean.
The ambition of the European countries involved is to lay the foundations for the production of new generation MALE drones as of 2020. Three large industrial groups - EADS, Dassault Aviation of France and Finmeccanica of Italy - proposed an association in July for developing the MALE drone according to government needs. In addition to drones, ministers stressed the need for Europeans to work together on in-flight refuelling, another shortfall noted during the conflict in Libya in 2011. (LC/transl.jl)