European Drone Aircraft: EU should build its own drones,and not rely on US for them insists top official

Europe's Neuron Drone

Europe should build its own unmanned aircraft and not rely on imported drones from the US, a leading EU official has said Michel Barnier, the EU's Internal Market Commissioner, was speaking days ahead of the launch of new proposals from the European Commission designed to strengthen European collaboration and boost the European defense industry which employs some 400,000 people.

There was a need to "identify areas where Europe can develop its own capacities," he said, according to reports.

"Europe should build its own drones, rather than importing them."

Barnier also reportedly said EU member states could procure refueling aircraft for pooled use. "European defences can't just be about French-British cooperation," he said.

The first stealth drone developed in Europe has made its first flight from a test base in France last year.

The terrifyingly-named "nEUROn" Drone has been built through a collaboration between France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Sweden and Switzerland.

It has taken five years of development and testing before the first flight was able to take off from Dassault Aviation company's base in Istres, France.

The large craft is 10 meters long, has a wingspan of about 12.5 meters and weighs five tons without weapons. It is powered by a Rolls-Royce Turbomeca "Adour" engine, and is intended to carry precision missiles controlled by a human operator.

Read more: EU should build its own drones, insists top official - Defence Management

European Drone Plan Seeks Political Backing as in Boost to EADS - b y Joseph de Weck & Brian Parkin

European Stealth Neuron Drone

France and Germany  are set to renew efforts to work on a joint unmanned aerial vehicle, supporting European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. (EAD) in its attempt to compete in a market now dominated by Israeli and U.S. companies.

Efforts to strengthen ties will probably be discussed when French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian meets his German counterpart Thomas de Maiziere tomorrow, Christian Schmidt, state secretary for Germany’s Ministry of Defense, said. Senior politicians are gathering to celebrate a treaty signed in 1963 that sealed the two countries’ friendship after World War II.

“There is a desire to explore development of a European drone,” Schmidt said in an interview in Berlin. “A European drone solution has to have more capability than current U.S. systems to make sense,” such as enhanced communications so spy drones can safely fly in civil airspace with airliners, he said.

A Franco-German drone agreement would come about two years after France committed to working closely with the U.K. on unmanned aircraft programs. That pact saw BAE Systems Plc (BA/) and Dassault Aviation SA (AM) join up to develop a system, in a move that sidelined EADS, the parent of Airbus SAS.

EADS said last year that it wasn’t continuing with its own Talarion drone after failing to win government funding.

Read more: European Drone Plan Seeks Political Backing as in Boost to EADS - Bloomberg