Article Posted on : - Sep 14, 2012

An urelated photo of Heron - Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAV.

PARIS (BNS): France and Germany have signed an agreement to work together on a medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial system (UAS), the French Ministry of Defence has said.

The two countries have agreed on a set of key operational needs for a MALE UAV which would help find a European solution to filling this capability gap. The two nations will also evaluate the possibility of operational cooperation as an intermediate step, it said.

France and Germany will work at harmonising the structures and procedures to achieve this goal. France specified that it will  ensure the work is fully consistent with the commitments it has made in the 2010 Lancaster House defence treaty with Britain, which includes cooperation on a new generation MALE UAV.

The declaration was signed by the German Secretary of State Beemelmans, the Delegate General for Armaments Collet-Billon, and the Chiefs of Defence Staff, the General and Admiral Guillaud Wieker, it added.