Growing British interest in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) has prompted General Atomics Aeronautical Systems to bring a full size mock-up of its _RQ-1A Predator air vehicle to Farnborough 2000.
"We have on-going programmes with the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence," says James Taylor, the company¹s business development manager." Project Watchkeeper is a study to develop the next UAV for the British Army and Project Extender is a communications relay experiment for the Royal Air Force. "We are also doing a safety study for the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) on the issues raised by flying the Predator in the UK. "Extender is a real experiment that will see a UAV undergo trials in the UK next year," he says. "We have very good prospects in the UK and other European countries - France and Italy - are close to purchasing the Predator this year or next. Our involvement here reflects the level of interest from the UK MoD in the Predator."
Source: Flight Daily News
