Breaking news
France & UK agree to invest $2bn in the Future Combat Air System project.
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World Aviation Defense & Security News - France & UK
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France & UK agree to invest $2bn in the Future Combat Air System project
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The French President François Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday announced a new $2bn project to build a prototype of the next generation of unmanned aircraft. The Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project builds on the successful $170 million joint feasibility study undertaken after the last UK France Summit in 2014.
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 The FCAS is likely to be based on BAE Systems' Taranis and Dassault's nEUROn demonstrators(Credit: Dassault Aviation) |
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"This program ... will be based on a multi-role drone platform that could serve as a basis for future operational capacity after 2030," the statement said after a Franco-British summit. "We plan to invest 2 billion euros in this program with a technical assessment toward 2020."
Britain and France will commit $1bn each to build a prototype unmanned aircraft that will be the "most advanced vehicle of its kind in Europe," Mr Cameron's office said in an e-mailed statement. France signed an MoU in 2012 to join UK's latest programme for an unmanned Future Combat Air System (FCAS), which will likely be based on BAE's Taranis demonstrator and on the Dassault nEURON demonstrator The Future Combat Air System project will give the UK and France the most advanced vehicle of its kind in Europe, securing high-end engineering jobs and expertise in both countries with full scale development of prototypes starting in 2017. UK companies including BAE Systems, Finmeccanica Airborne and Space Systems Division ,and Rolls Royce and Dassault Aviation, SNECMA/Safran and Thales in France are expected to benefit from the project. |
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