Europe’s Industry is ready to develop a next generation advanced European unmanned aerial system (UAS). After their call for the development of a European drone at last year’s Paris Airshow, the three most relevant European aeronautical companies have now agreed on further details for a joint approach.

Airbus Defence and Space, Dassault Aviation and Alenia Aermacchi (a Finmeccanica company) delivered a proposal for further defining a European UAS to the Ministry of Defence of France, Germany and Italy. The offer proposes a definition phase which has been prepared by joint development teams of Airbus Defence and Space, Dassault Aviation and Alenia Aermacchi and which is backed by an industrial agreement on work-share and a cooperative agreement to start the MALE 2020 programme.

The definition phase foresees that the three nations define and adjust their requirements for a European UAS development together with their armed forces and the European industry. The definition phase also serves to avoid costly additional developments during production and to reduce financial and development risks to a minimum. A commitment by the nations on the further development of the European UAS has then to be made after finalising this definition phase: the plan of the Industries leads to an affordable and certifiable solution ready by 2020.

The time frame of the decision to launch the European UAS is now critical in order to meet this goal. Europe’s largest manufacturers for military aircraft thereby continue the common path for a UAS MALE programme as proposed during Paris Airshow 2013. The three partners are confident in the value of their proposal and are ready to move forward.