France and Britan Moving Forward With Plan to Jointly Build a Combat Drone

Britain, France Move Forward in UCAS Deal

Pierre Tran

Defense News

November 9, 2014

A two-year feasibility study awarded to BAE and Dassault is the first step in what could become a full demonstration program that shapes the future of combat aerospace in Europe. (Dassault Aviation)

PARIS — Britain and France have awarded contracts worth €150 million (US $187 million) to teams of British and French firms for a two-year feasibility study for a combat drone, a step forward in a search for successors to the Typhoon and Rafale fighter jets.

Total funding for the study for an unmanned combat air system (UCAS) will rise to €250 million, as each country will also equally fund a total of €100 million for national studies for the UCAS.

“A UCAS capability would, by the 2030s, be able to undertake sustained surveillance, mark targets, gather intelligence, deter adversaries and carry out strikes in hostile territory,” the UK Defence Ministry said in a statement.

Laurent Collet-Billon, head of the Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA) procurement office, and Bernard Gray, chief of defense materiel at MoD’s Defence Equipment and Support arm, handed over the contracts to senior executives of the cross-Channel partners:

■ BAE Systems and Dassault Aviation will pilot the study as partners on the UCAS.

■ Safran and Rolls-Royce have been teamed on the engines.

■ Selex and Thales will work on sensors and electronic systems.

“That is a really great industrial team,” Collet-Billon said at a high-level ceremony at Dassault’s Saint Cloud head office, which served champagne to celebrate the bilateral signing on Nov. 5.

“The technological excellence of our defense aerospace industry must be maintained over the long term,” he said. “It is a matter of sovereignty and operational superiority. This requires an ambitious investment strategy open to partnerships.”

Once the study is completed, work can start in early 2017 on a technology demonstrator, which will lead to a prototype model, he said.

“The development of [UCAS] is of vital importance to the UK and France, which have the most capable and experienced armed forces in Europe and well-established defense industrial bases,” Gray said.

Work on the UCAS will help structure the future industrial base, Collet-Billon told Defense News.

Thales chairman Jean-Bernard Levy said the program was one of “cooperation.” The planned future combat drone will be armed, carrying the most advanced technology, high-level autonomy, new-generation multifunction sensors and kit for high-bandwidth satellite communications, radar and electronic warfare, while flying with manned aircraft, a DGA official said. The drone will feature stealth at an unprecedented level.

Industry is expected to deliver studies that, by 2030, would allow long-range flight and deep-strike targeting.

The studies will explore whether the technology is sufficiently mature and can be affordably built on a production line. Industry teams will examine the operational concept with British and French services and the cost of ownership of the UCAVs, the DGA official said.

Simulation will also be a key factor in the studies, allowing for the refinement and selection of concepts for the 2016 launch of the demonstrator phase.

The technology developed on the drone may also be used for a future manned fighter.

The feasibility study is one of the rare industrial and technological cooperation deals between Britain and France in weapons, apart from the missile sector, said Hélène Masson, senior research fellow at think tank Fondation de Récherche Stratégique.

“The workload in the design offices of the prime contractors, systems and engine makers is falling as the Eurofighter and Rafale are nearing mature design, so the study helps maintain know-how in a high-value area,” she said. “The challenge remains the launch of a joint weapons program.”

BAE is prime on the MoD’s Taranis UCAV program worth £185 million (US $295 million), and teamed with Rolls-Royce, GE Aviation and QinetiQ, she said. Dassault is the lead on the Neuron UCAV demonstrator, with France working with Italy, Greece, Spain, Switzerland and Sweden.

“In the absence of a single program, the UCAS feasibility study could at least lead to a British and French common design,” she said.

“The signing sends a strong signal that Britain and France have good relations with a concrete defense project, that there is urgency in the drones sector, and Dassault has a future in the sky with a combat aircraft, one that could be unmanned,” said Loic Tribot La Spiere, chief executive of think tank Centre d’Etude Prospective et Stratégique. ■