The British government is reviewing a security agreement signed previously with the U.S. that could preclude future cooperation with Europe on unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs). Last week’s unveiling of the all-British Taranis stealthy UCAV demonstrator by BAE Systems has brought renewed focus on whether European governments and industry can or should unite to fully develop such a system.
The existence of the agreement was confirmed to AIN by Jonathan Barratt, Team Leader for Unmanned Air Systems (UAS) in the Defence Equipment and Support (DES) organization that is part of the UK Ministry of Defence. Officials at Dassault, which leads the pan-European Neuron UCAV demonstrator program, previously told AIN that when they approached the UK to discuss the possibility of cooperation, “the British were not able to discuss low observables with us because they had signed an exclusive agreement with the U.S.”
Barrett said technical knowledge gained from the U.S. could be ring-fenced from any future international collaboration. Further, he told journalists attending a BAE Systems briefing on the Taranis here yesterday that a program in which two British representatives participated in the Pentagon’s UCAV development programs had ended last year. It was called Project Churchill and lasted five years, but did not involve any technology development or exchange, he said. “The project discussed the CONOPS [Concepts of Operations], doctrine and through-life costs of a UCAS. Both we and the U.S. side derived great value from it,” he added.
