European Aircraft Industry: Europe Tests Drone Warplanes in Battle to Resist U.S. Domination - by Robert Wall

European Neuron Stealth Drone

Europe is playing catch-up in the unmanned combat aircraft field as it seeks to avoid a rerun of its failure in the market for so-called endurance surveillance drones, which was ceded to U.S. and Israeli rivals. In the combat arena, Boeing Co. (BA) flew its X-45 test model as long ago as 2002, while Northrop Grumman Co. (NOC)’s X-47B successfully landed on an aircraft carrier in July.

“It’s important for Europe to get its act together,” Saab Chief Executive Officer Hakan Buskhe said in a telephone interview from Stockholm. “We should have the goal of being a world leader in this area. We started slow.”

London-based BAE, which has had links to U.S. combat drone efforts, had worked through a series of technology demonstrators before flying the Taranis, a model that’s the size of a Hawk jet trainer and designed to be all-but invisible to enemy radar.

European advances still leave the region lagging years behind the capabilities displayed by U.S. drones, with Falls Church, Virginia-based Northrop’s X-47B logging more than 100 flights, including its landing on the USS George H.W. Bush, as the U.S. Navy works to field an operational system around 2020. 

Read more: Europe Tests Drone Warplanes in Battle to Resist U.S. Domination - Bloomberg