Most EU members have either acquired or will soon acquire UAVs. However, the combined EU efforts are small compared to the US acquisitions. As noted earlier, in three years (US Fiscal Years 2004, 2005 and 2006) the US bought 295 UAVs15. In the same period EU members bought less then 100. Budget-wise one can compare the US expenditure of US$2.66bn in just those three years, with the fact that the full UK Watchkeeper UAV programme, which covers most of UK UAV acquisitions for the coming decade, will cost about half of that expenditure.
The most urgent requirements are for tactical, MALE and HALE long-range UAVs. Interestingly there seems to be less interest in mini- and micro-UAVs, despite the fact that several EU members are involved in conflicts where the US found a strong need for such systems.
Many UAVs planned or in service with EU Member States are not of EU origin, even in those states that have an indigenous industry capable of producing them. The strong position of Israeli companies in developing UAVs is obvious. Although they provide many of the UAVs ordered by EU states, often these are ‘disguised’ as a European product, produced at least nominally by a European company. Frequently, the systems are given different designations to further hide their origin. For example, in 1998, Belgium ordered three B-Hunter UAV systems with 18 UAVs.
They were produced by a consortium specifically set up for the production Eagle, owned 50 per cent by Sonaca (Belgium), per cent by Thales-Belgium (Belgium) and 25 per cent by IAI (Israel). It is interesting to note is that only two other UAVs competed for the order: the French Sperwer and the Swiss Ranger. The latter is reality is another Israeli UAV produced by a European company sysytem.
The strong position of the two main Israeli UAV producers, IAI and Elbit, is also reflected in the fact that the UK selected the Elbit Hermes-450 UAV for its Watchkeeper programme (and renaming it Hermes, WK-450), and from the fact that France bought Heron UAVs from IAI as an ‘interim’ solution for its MALE programme (and renaming Heron, Eagle). The Eagle will be used by EADS reconnaissance systems. France requires up to 24 MALE UAVs and is most likely to order Eagle-2 UAVs, developed by IAI and EADS from the Eagle-1, which probably means that IAI will deliver a version of its Heron-2 UAV fitted with EADS sensors.
0 comments:
Post a Comment