Cassidian has suggested an alternative funding proposal to France, Germany and Spain for its Talarion unmanned air system. Budget approval for an estimated €3 billion ($4.2 billion) for development and production is two years behind schedule.
Cuts in defence spending among European governments mean that getting a green light for a major new programme at this time is unlikely, concedes Cassidian chief executive Stefan Zoller. “Seeing the budget constraints of the nations, we have come up with a stepped approach, where we have proposed to build a prototype to fly at the end of 2013 to 2014,” he said during a financial presentation at the company’s Unterschleissheim headquarters near Munich on 28 March.
“To build this prototype we are asking right now for €300 million: €100 million per nation, spread over three years. That is something that should be manageable, despite the crisis. We still go full speed ahead with the development, pre-financed with our own money,” he said. However, repeating previous ultimatums linked to the scheme, he cautioned: “We can’t wait any longer, and we can’t self-finance forever.” He also hinted at a possible change to the three-nation approach. Turkey is now ready to participate in addition to, or as a replacement for one of the current planned parties. (EADS said in January 2010 it needed €1.5 billion in total from the three governments to continue developing Talarion.)
The recent agreement between Dassault* and BAE Systems to pursue the joint development of a medium-altitude, long-endurance UAS has raised new questions over the viability of the Talarion programme. Zoller claims that Cassidian is also “years ahead in terms of technology” when compared with other European companies.
He also declined to reveal how much EADS has invested in the Talarion project to date. However, the company’s total spend on unmanned technologies – which also include its Barracuda unmanned combat air vehicle demonstrator – has already amounted to €500-600 million.
*Dassault is 46% owned by EADS
Sources: Flight Global, Bloomberg