Italy, France, Germany Sign European Drone Project

(S0urce: euractiv.com)

Italy, France and Germany agreed on Monday to develop a European drone programme for reconnaissance and surveillance, seeking to inject momentum into a proposal first considered in 2013 to reduce reliance on U.S. and Israeli technology.

In a joint signing ceremony, the defence ministers of the three countries pledged a two-year study to lay the basis for a European drone to be operating by 2025 and said Spain and Poland had expressed interest in joining the plan.

The scheme for a pilotless aircraft built by the three EU powers could be worth up to a billion euros if it gets airborne, officials said after the deal was signed in Brussels.

“It’s a very important step for European cooperation, a critical cooperation which we must have at our disposal in many theatres of operation,” French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said, alongside his German and Italian counterparts.

“The goal of the Euro-drone is that we can decide by ourselves in Europe on what we use it, where we deploy the Euro-drone and how we use it,” German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said.

“This makes us, the Europeans, independent.”

For a decade, European powers have tried and failed to come up with a common drone project, meaning that Britain, Italy and France currently use US-made Reaper drones. Germany and France also use Israeli-built machines. Competing national needs, corporate rivalry and a lack of government support have undermined past efforts.

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