EADS pitches for drones to equip European armed forces

BERLIN - European aerospace corporation EADS is racing against time to equip the European armed forces with drones or unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) to enhance their defence capabilities, a top company official said.

“We believe that drones or UAVs will be the dominant weapon in military operations the world over, especially in Europe for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) missions,” Bernhard Gerwert, EADS (defence and security) military air systems chief executive, told IANS here.

To bridge the capability gap and compete with American and Israeli firms which dominate the global UAVs market, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company embarked on an ambitious programme to develop technologies for the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in 2005.

“We launched a tri-lateral programme with Germany, France and Spain as partner countries to design an integrated UAS for developing a range of UAVs that can be deployed for military missions and civil applications,” Gerwart said on the margins of the six-day Berlin international air show (ILA 2010), which concluded Sunday.

The multiple applications include swift actions against terrorism and piracy, strengthening control of illegal immigration and contributing to the management of natural and ecological disasters such as oil pollution.

“For instance, the new generation Talarion class of UAV, which is in the final phase of development for production, will be able to provide political and military decision-makers in the partner countries with real-time, high quality and secure intelligence information,” said Gerwart.

With high-performance sensors and specific flight characteristics, Talarion will provide reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities for wide areas and high information update rate and short approach times to the place of deployment.

“On each reconnaissance and surveillance mission, Talarion can cover between twice and four times as large an area as other systems to provide operational superiority with a smaller fleet size,” Nicolas Chamussy, senior vice-president, EADS (defence security) military air systems, said at a preview of the UAVs technology demonstrator in static display at the Berlin-Schonefeld airport.

Similarly, the EADS Tracker drones are used for tactical (target) detection, reconnaissance and surveillance, troops or convey protection and artillery support.

EADS has delivered 120 Tracker UAVs named Drac to the French army, which has deployed a dozen of them in Afghanistan since May. A few of them have been combat proven with an undisclosed Middle East customer.

“As a hand-held device, Drac can be launched quickly for over-the-hill reconnaissance and surveillance detection, classification, localisation and tracking. It is easy to operate and maintain as it is bad weather tolerant, with stealth, accurate and safety features,” Chamussy noted.

The other drones in the EADS portfolio are Atlante, a high performance long endurance tactical UAS. Designed by MAS in Spain, Atlante is due for certification under Cat II, which allows flying over segregated airspace and carrying out military and civil missions, including homeland security and emergency protection.

Barracuda is another agile UAV in network-centric environment. As a technology demonstrator, it had a successful flight test campaign at Goose Bay in Canada in July 2009.

In collaboration with the Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI), EADS developed a Harfang drone for deployment at medium altitude and over long duration to undertake ISTAR missions. The French army deployed Harfang in Afghanistan in Feb 2009 with on-site support by the consortium.

EuroHawk is a high-altitude long-endurance reconnaissance system for signal intelligence tasks. Its system provides stand-off capabilities to detect radar and communication emitters. It is due for delivery by Dec 2011.

“Capabilities for ISTAR missions are more important than ever before to meet Europe’s growing political responsibilities in the world. Currently, about 20,000 soldiers from Germany, France and Spain are engaged in 15 theatres of conflicts worldwide,” said Gerwert.

The US has developed a full range of UAVs and produces equipment in impressive numbers, with a budget 30 times higher than spent by Germany, France or Spain annually.