France advises bringing UAVs into mainstream defence budgets

Posted on: Mar. 8th, 2006 || Source: flightglobal.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

France advises bringing UAVs into mainstream defence budgets

The French government has recommended the formal inclusion of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) funding in future defence budgets, adding that the country could terminate its state-funded European medium-altitude long-endurance (EuroMale) project in favour of the Dassault Aviation-led Neuron unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) programme.

Last week the French senate issued its report for the foreign ministry into the role of UAVs in the country’s armed forces. Senators Philippe Nogrix and Maryse Bergé-Lavigne recommend the country’s UAV projects will be brought into the main defence budget in the future.

Currently the EuroMale study is run under licence to the French procurement agency DGA by EADS Military and includes Spanish cooperation while Dassault is to receive €405 million ($486 million) from a special research budget from the DGA to run the Neuron technology demonstrator programme in a deal signed last month. UAVs are currently seen as “too expensive for our country” which is why neither appears in the official defence budget for 2003-2008.

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