FRANCE, BRITAIN TO BUILD AIR COMBAT DRONES

PanARMENIAN.Net
February 16, 2012 – 17:45 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – France and Britain are to launch a joint project
to build air combat drones during a visit by UK Prime Minister David
Cameron to Paris, French newspaper Les Echos reported on Thursday,
February 16, according to AFP.

Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will announce the
project during a summit meeting on Friday, the newspaper quoted
several sources as saying.

“The project will take the form of a joint letter of intent that
will be non-binding but will open the door to the first preliminary
studies,” the business paper reported.

“Tens of millions of euros” will be allocated to getting the project
off the ground, it said, and the goal to is to have a prototype drone
ready by 2020.

The project hopes to avoid the “fratricidal European battle” that has
opposed the Rafale fighter jet produced by France’s Dassault and the
UK-backed Eurofighter in bidding for warplane contracts, it said.

Dassault’s Rafale this month won the right to be the sole bidder
in a major contract to supply warplanes to India, beating out the
Eurofighter consortium and sparking consternation in Britain.

Les Echos said the drone project would be a joint programme between
Rafale and Britain’s BAE systems, noting that it excluded pan-European
aerospace and defence corporation EADS, which “will not be appreciated
in Berlin”.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress