The European Union is lagging slightly behind the United States and China in the drone industry, according to a European Parliament study published on Monday 10 July on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) integration into European airspace and operation over populated areas. “Procurement barriers could be eased to support the adoption of civil technologies beyond research and innovation”, it says.
In China and the United States, government programmes are seeking to reduce the costs and risks for private sector development in the UAS and electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) markets. The ‘Drone Strategy 2.0’ initiative, presented in November 2022 by the European Commission (see EUROPE 13073/9), “provides good coverage of the issues currently facing the UAS industry”, but lacks incentives.
“However, it may underplay some of the difficulty in achieving full integration, which requires further coordination and prioritisation to keep the EU on track to achieve a largescale drone market in the EU by 2030”, the report concludes.
To read the report: https://aeur.eu/f/7zg (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)