France’s new defence minister said he’ll “go back to square one” on plans to build unmanned military aircraft.“I want to start afresh,” Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in Paris at his first press conference since being sworn in May 17. “I want to move fast, but without passion and with pragmatism.”
In February, ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy and the British government asked BAE Systems Plc (BA/) and Dassault Aviation SA (AM) to start work on a medium-altitude long-endurance UAS for reconnaissance that would be available for flights from 2020, as well as to explore development of a UCAV, or unmanned combat aerial vehicle, by 2030.
In March, European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. (EADS), the parent of Airbus SAS, said it wasn’t continuing with its own UAS, called Talarion, after failing to win government funding. The previous French defence minister, Gerard Longuet, had criticized Dassault and EADS for not working more closely together on unmanned aircraft.
Le Drian said a study on French military spending will be ready by the end of the year, with a multi-year budget agreed by mid-2013.
Source: Bloomberg