Following today’s announcement by the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, and French President, Francois Hollande regarding the two year unmanned systems feasibility study, worth £120M

Our CEO Ian King commented: “Together with Dassault we welcome the further support from our Governments for our joint work in developing this important defence capability for the United Kingdom and France.

“Given the strong research and development investment and progress in technology that has already been made, continuing work in unmanned air systems will also ensure we maintain the core knowledge and key skills necessary to make a make a long term contribution to both our national economies.”

The Company has recently completed a joint study for the UK and French governments with Dassault Aviation, known as the Future Combat Air System Demonstration Programme Preparation Phase study.

Today’s news builds further on the investment and technological capabilities we have already developed in unmanned air systems (UAS) over the past decade through a number of prototypes and demonstrators. Most recently the Company and the UK Ministry of Defence invested in designing and building the Taranis Unmanned Combat Air System demonstrator. Technologies from Taranis will make an important contribution to this next UAS development programme.

BAE press release