UK and France to Co-operate on UCAV Programme

Britain and France have extended cooperation on UAS technology to an unmanned replacement for fighter aircraft, Peter Luff, the U.K. defence-procurement minister, said on Wednesday at a military trade fair in London. Jointly producing an unmanned combat air vehicle or UCAV would result in “genuine” cost savings and efficiencies and enhance inter-operability, Luff said in an interview on the sidelines of the DSEi show.

“We are working together on developing the science, the capability requirements, the doctrines,” the minister said. “Where it will end I won’t tell you because I don’t know.”

France and Britain pledged last November to jointly develop the next generation of medium-altitude, long-endurance, or MALE, drones to end their dependence on U.S. and Israeli unmanned aircraft for reconnaissance and strike missions, which are increasingly used in conflicts such as Afghanistan and Libya.

In one scenario, combining efforts to develop a UCAV could bring together London-based BAE Systems Plc and Paris-based Dassault Aviation SA, Luff said. The two companies are already jointly developing the MALE drone, with an announcement on the project likely at an upcoming Anglo-French summit, he said.

Source: Bloomberg

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