Israel's unmanned air system industry is extremely concerned that the European market could be all but closed to its products after France, Germany and Italy confirmed plans to jointly define their requirements for a future high-altitude, medium-endurance (MALE) design.
"We are going to lose a big potential market that was complicated until now, but will disappear in the near future if things don't change," an Israeli industry source says.
The declaration of intent between the three nations signed on 18 May will involve definition-phase work performed on a MALE product by Airbus Defence & Space, Alenia Aermacchi and Dassault Aviation. The industry partners have long been urging their governments to jointly develop a system that would enable them to end reliance on equipment sourced from the USA and Israel.
Israeli manufacturers including Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries have in recent years made huge efforts to sell their UAS products to Europe, with IAI having had success in France and Germany. The company had sought to build on this position by offering its Heron TP system to meet future requirements and, while it reached co-operation agreements with European companies, this failed to deliver the expected results.
According to the industry source, if France, Germany and Italy move forward with the development and introduction of a common MALE platform, Israel will still be able to sell technologies that have been proven within its products, but "selling complete systems seems… not a real option".
Source: FlightGlobal.com
