Europe's MALE 2020

摘要

France, Germany and Italy have agreed to begin a definition study into developing a joint medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) UAS. The two-year MALE 2020 project, involving the countries' respective defence ministries and industry, is intended to tailor customer requirements. It also aims to reduce financial and development risk and provide data to decide whether to proceed on a full-scale development and procurement of a joint UAV for delivery in the early 2020s. A statement from Airbus Defence and Space, Dassault Aviation and Finmeccanica said: "Besides being an answer to European armed forces' requirements, it will take into account the need to optimise the difficult budgetary situation through pooling research and development funding." They added that the project would secure the sovereignty of unmanned MALE assets for the countries involved, which have depended on non-European technology. The French and Italian air forces, for example, currently both operate MQ-9 Reaper MALE UAVs. The companies said a shared European platform would also foster joint certification and contribute to, "sustaining key competencies" in aerospace in the countries involved.