The French government has recommended the formal inclusion of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) funding in future defence budgets, adding that the country could terminate its state-funded European medium-altitude long-endurance (EuroMale) project in favour of the Dassault Aviation-led Neuron unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) programme.

Last week the French senate issued its report for the foreign ministry into the role of UAVs in the country’s armed forces. Senators Philippe Nogrix and Maryse Bergé-Lavigne recommend the country’s UAV projects will be brought into the main defence budget in the future.

Currently the EuroMale study is run under licence to the French procurement agency DGA by EADS Military and includes Spanish cooperation while Dassault is to receive €405 million ($486 million) from a special research budget from the DGA to run the Neuron technology demonstrator programme in a deal signed last month. UAVs are currently seen as “too expensive for our country” which is why neither appears in the official defence budget for 2003-2008.

However Nogrix and Bergé-Lavigne say that it seems “probable that within 5-10 years”, endurance UAVs “will play a part in our armed forces”. However, they add: “The financial sums required to bring this about are considerable and will need to be added to existing budgets, as the intelligence gathered by these drones will supplement existing means such as satellites and manned aircraft, rather than substitute them”.

The report says Dassault has been given a target of around €25 million for each Neuron, around half that of each Rafale fighter. To meet that target, the report says, European cooperation is essential. The senators recommend harmonising current European UAV projects potentially through a common requirements analysis process possible run by the European Defence Agency and focusing on command, control and communications systems. It says these areas have been the major cause of delays to the EuroMale programme. 

The report recommends that France should progress EuroMale if Spain remains the only cooperation partner. In contrast, Neuron includes industrial cooperation from Italy, Greece, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland and could include Germany if it is able to free up funds.

JUSTIN WASTNAGE / LONDON

External link:
To read the full French Senate report into the role of unmanned air vehicles in the French armed forces (only available in French), click here. 

Source: Flight International

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