Thales, Other Contractors to Bid on Potential French UAV Tender

The Airbus Group‘s defense and space division and Textron have teamed to bid for a future tender offer by the French government for unmanned aerial vehicle technology, C4ISR & Networks reported Thursday.

Pierre Tran writes the tender is expected in the second half of 2014 for awarding in 2015, with the Airbus Textron team facing competition from Safran‘s Sagem subsidiary and Thales.

According to Jens Nielsen, Airbus D&S senior vice president, the company will make a joint proposal with Textron with the Textron Shadow UAV and Airbus’ sensor payload from the Harfang UAV used by the French  army.

Meanwhile, Sagem will propose its Patroller UAV with sensor payload from Thales, said Frederic Mazzanti, Sagem executive vice president and head of optronics and defense.

Tran also notes that General Atomics and Thales UK, which has supplied the British army with its Watchkeeper UAV, are also likely to bid on the potential contract.