The future of an Anglo-French program to develop a
medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) UAV remains unclear, even though
defense ministers from both nations signed agreements July 24 to push
ahead with cooperation in other key areas of UAV technology.
When
British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond met French counterpart
Jean-Yves Le Drian in London last week, the possible MALE UAV tie-up
didn’t rate a single mention in the public statements released following
the meeting.
Not surprisingly, the two ministers and their
officials focused on the Watchkeeper UAV and combat UAV (UCAV) decisions
they made progress on, rather than those in the pending tray, while
France conducts a policy review of its MALE UAV requirements.
The
meeting also saw the two sides edge closer on the potentially damaging
issue of whether to expand their defense equipment cooperation to
include other European countries interested in broader UAV development.
The MALE UAV policy review is expected to emerge in the next few weeks, French government officials said.
The
review, driven by operations and budget, prompted the suspension of a
decision to acquire as an intermediate solution the Heron TP UAV from
France’s Dassault Aviation and Israel Aerospace Industries.
A possible purchase of the U.S.-built General Atomics Reaper or Predator B is among the options under consideration in Paris.
The
two defense heads instead focused on the possible French purchase of
the Watchkeeper tactical UAV — already adopted by the British Army and
the first small step toward development of a UCAV demonstrator. This was
enough to boost the 2010 Anglo-French defense treaty that had been
showing signs of drift in recent months.
Thales UK is the
potential beneficiary of the Watchkeeper collaboration, while a joint
BAE Systems-Dassault effort is tasked with a 12-to-15 month plan to
identify key UCAV technologies for a future system intended for fielding
in the 2030-2040 time frame.
Britain and France have separate
UCAV demonstrators due to fly in the next few months. A tie-up between
Britain’s Rolls-Royce and France’s Safran group, looking at possible
engine development options for the UCAV, also could emerge in the next
few weeks, industry executives said.
Cooling on Collaboration
In public, at least, industry and the two governments remain confident a MALE UAV program will emerge.
Privately,
though, some British senior executives and government officials warn
that the tide might be running against a MALE UAV development project,
and that even if a decision is made to move ahead, it might be little
more than a political fig leaf.
BAE and Dassault were hopeful a 30
million pound ($46.7 million) MALE UAV deal to study technology
maturity issues would be signed at the recent Farnborough International
Airshow.
It didn’t happen. Instead, British government officials
were quietly warning that the two sides were cooling on the UAV
collaboration, and if they had to focus their limited financial
resources on one program, it would be the UCAV.
Doug Barrie, the
senior air analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies
in London, reckons that if the two sides have to make a choice, it will
likely be in favor of UCAV investment.
“If resources are the
issue, they may take the view that a MALE development is rather like
reinventing the wheel, while the UCAV is of strategic importance
industrially and operationally,” he said.
A BAE spokeswoman said her company and Dassault “expect [MALE UAV] contracts to be signed shortly.”
The
British MoD said in a statement, “We have made significant progress to
pave the way for cooperation on a joint MALE capability.”
Charles
Edelstenne, Dassault’s executive chairman, said the MALE UAV project is a
key part of the company’s effort to retain integration skills in the
military aerospace sector beyond the Rafale fighter jet.
“The importance is the maintenance of skills,” he said. “Any program that allows me to maintain military capacity is important.
Britain and France have had diverging views on the issue of allowing other nations to join key programs like the MALE UAV.
The
new Socialist government in Paris recently signed a defense cooperation
pact with Germany, which included possible collaboration in the UAV
sector.
Tomas Valasek, the defense and foreign affairs director at
the Centre for European Reform, wrote in a recent article that while
the British government and the previous French administration saw it as
an exclusively bilateral affair, the new administration views UAV
cooperation as the core of a wider European effort.
The statement
released after the meeting last week talked about opening specific
programs to wider European collaboration. The U.K. MoD declined to say
what those programs were.
Defensenews.com
