BAE, Dassault Jointly Pursue Int’l UCAV Program

BAE Systems and Dassault Aviation have formed an alliance and submitted proposals to build a demonstration vehicle for the U.K. and France’s future unmanned combat air systems, Defense News reported Wednesday.

Andrew Chuter and Pierre Tran write the team has finished preparation work for the project and the two European nations could award a contract for the program’s next phase in 2014.

British and French military procurement officials are slated to consider BAE and Dassault’s joint proposals in mid-December, according to the report.

Chuter and Tran report that BAE is developing the Taranis unmanned combat aerial system technology for Britain’s demonstration program and Dassault is building the Neuron UCAV demonstrator for the French military and is set to undergo a series of flight tests.

The new proposal says that the two companies will eventually develop a joint aircraft to assess operational issues, according to the article.