We must pay tribute to the Italians, even their UAVs should look beautiful. Having achieved significant success with its UN-flagged vehicle operating in Africa, Selex ES wants to further enhance the capabilities of its Falco drone by, among other things, a turbodiesel engine.
600 kg and more
In Pentagon terms, the Group IV category includes vehicles with a total mass of more than 600 kg, but intended for flights at altitudes less than 5500 meters. A striking example of a system from this group is the General Atomics Q-1 Predator-A UAV, which originates from the 520-kg Gnat 750 aircraft, developed for the CIA and took off in 1989.
The leader in this series in terms of the number of vehicles produced is still the US Air Force RQ / MQ-1 Predator UAV with a Rotax 914F piston engine with a power of 86 kW and a mass of 1020 kg. The RQ-1 UAV made its first flight in 1994, and entered service and began performing combat missions in 1999, when nine vehicles (numbers 95-3013 / 3021) were deployed in Hungary to fly over Bosnia and Kosovo. Six of them were lost.
The 268th and final Predator-A for the United States Air Force (MQ-1B) was delivered in March 2011. It is known that 116 units were involved in class A incidents from 1996 to 2014, including 102 devices that were decommissioned after that. The current US Air Force fleet has 164 aircraft on its balance sheet. A small number of Predator-A are operated by Italy, Morocco and Turkey. An unarmed UAV Predator XP is capable of staying in the air for 40 hours.
The newest variant in the Q-1 series from General Atomics is the 1633-kg MQ-1C Gray Eagle drone (the American name prevails over the original Gray Eagle) of the American army, which replaced the 725-kg MQ-5B Hunter from Northrop Grumman.
Compared to the MQ-1B, the MQ-1C version received a Thielert Centurion diesel engine and an automatic take-off and landing system (Atls), Northrop Grumman's ZPY-1 STARLite radar with a selection of ground moving targets, a repeater, a tactical data channel and increased payload.
UAVs MQ-1C were deployed in Iraq in August 2009 and in Afghanistan in April 2012. The Pentagon's 2016 budget request includes $ 383 million for 17 MQ-1C drones, after 19 units were requested in 2015 and 23 units in 2014. The US Army originally planned to have 128 MQ-1C UAVs plus 21 in reserve and 7 for flight training, but later reports suggest that the total number of these systems will be increased to 164 with the last delivery planned for 2022. The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment receives 24 MQ-1C vehicles.
The first flight of the improved version of the Gray Eagle with a mass of 1900 kg took place in July 2013. The drone was powered by a 153 kW Lycoming DEL-120 engine with improved efficiency instead of a 123 kW Centurion 1.7; the duration of the flight should increase from 23 to 50 hours. The device has already demonstrated the ability to stay in the air for 45.3 hours.
The closest analogue of the RQ-1 is the Heron I (Shoval) UAV with a mass of 1250 kg from Israel Aerospace Industries, which first took off in 1994 with an 86 kW Rotax 924 engine. UAV Heron demonstrated a flight duration of 52 hours. It is currently in service with (among other countries) Australia, Azerbaijan, Canada, Ecuador, France, Germany, India, Israel, Singapore and Turkey, and police officers from Brazil and Mexico. Among the more than 20 operators, the largest is the Indian Air Force, which has about 50 in service. In December 2014, South Korea also chose the Heron I UAV.
The newest aircraft in this line of IAI is the Super Heron HF (Heavy Fuel) with a mass of 1450 kg with an installed 149 kW Fiat Dieseljet engine and having a flight duration of 45 hours. It was shown in Singapore in early 2014 with a stabilized optoelectronic station Mosp 3000-HD from IAI, a synthetic aperture radar IAI / Elta EL / M-2055D Sar / Gmti and an electronic reconnaissance kit.
UAV Hermes 900 (Kochav) of Elbit Systems with a mass of 1180 kg first took to the air in December 2009. The Hermes 900 in 2012 was selected by the Israeli Air Force and Switzerland (heavy fuel engine variant) in 2014. It is also operated by Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. The Hermes 900 entered service with Israel during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza in July 2014.
Another Israeli UAV Falcon Eye from the company Innocon weighing 800 kg, which is based on a manned aircraft, can be noted in this category.
China has made several attempts to replicate the success of the Predator-A and Heron I, including the 1100kg Wing Loong (Pterodactyl), the 1330kg CH-4B from Casc and its Sky Saker derivative from Norinco, and the 1200kg BZK-005 from Harbin. Iran also did not hide its developments in this category, among them Shahed (witness) from Qods Aeronautics Industries (QAI) and the larger Fotros from Iran Aerospace Industries Organization (IAIO), each with pylons for hanging weapons.
The Falco Evo (Evo short for Evoluzione) is a significantly heavier (650 kg, hence Croup IV) development of the previous model with a wingspan increased from 7.2 to 12.5 meters. First took off in 2010
Adcom Systems from the United Arab Emirates also developed the United 40 Block 5 twin-engine UAV weighing 1500 kg, first introduced in 2013.
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) first flew its Anka UAV with a mass of 1600 kg in December 2010. Then two devices were manufactured under the designation Anka block A, and their tests showed the need for a more functional version of Anka block B. A representative of the Turkish TAI said that the Ministry of Defense ordered ten Block B devices, which will test various new equipment, including satellite communications (a hint of control of the device out of line of sight), and a modified optoelectronic station in the bow (in order to make it as easy as possible and install high-resolution cameras, etc.), but said nothing about the armed version. Since the Anka B UAV will need a new engine due to the fact that the problematic company Thielert has passed into Chinese hands (Avic), options have appeared to install a more powerful engine from another manufacturer, and thus the chances of an armed version will increase. The first flight of the Anka B was supposed to take place in January 2015, but in the photos dedicated to this event we see the previous version of Block A. It is not yet clear if this is a fully functional version of B.
The main European project in this category is the Patroller weighing 1050 kg from the Sagem company, based on the Stemme S-15 motor glider. UAV Patroller has an automatic landing and landing system and can stay aloft for 20 hours. It is offered for both military and civilian use.
The Snyper UAV from Denel was shown at the IDEX 2015 exhibition. In fact, it is a Seeker 400, modified for launching air-to-ground missiles (pictured are a pair of Impi-S missiles). System tests are underway and full readiness is scheduled for 2016
The Aerosonde 4.7G drone from Textron is small and capable of taking off from relatively confined areas. It has a long flight duration, a communication channel range of 80 miles, and is also suitable for combating maritime piracy, especially when equipped with automatic detection software in order to identify problem areas arising against the background of interference from the sea surface
25 to 600 kilograms
This is the most numerous category (according to the Pentagon's classification of Group II), so we will only mention a few devices here.
A relative newcomer to this group is the 500 kg Karayel UAV, developed by the Turkish company Vestel Savunma; it has a flight duration of 20 hours with a 70 kg load. Under the 2011 contract, Vestel manufactured a batch of six drones for the Turkish Ministry of Defense.
One of the leaders in this group is the IAI Searcher series, which (along with IAI / AAI's Pioneer) replaced the IAI's Scout and IMI's Mastiff, the first Israeli reconnaissance UAV projects to enter service back in 1979.
Currently in its third modification, known as the Searcher Mk III, the 35 kW Limbach has a flight duration of 18 hours. The Searcher II, which entered service in 2000, was used by 14 countries and is still in large numbers (at least 100) in the service of India. It was manufactured under license by the Ural Civil Aviation Plant in Russia under the designation "Forpost".
Here he is and our Outpost
Elbit Systems Hermes 450 (Zik) UAVs weighing 450 kg are operated by 11 countries, and it is assumed that it is used by Israel in an armed version. The Hermes 450 became the basis for the WK450 Watchkeeper drone from Elbit Systems / Thales. At the same time, the parasol wing (located above the fuselage on the struts) was replaced by a high-positioned wing and a synthetic aperture radar I-Master from Thales with the Gmti mode (selection of ground moving targets) was added. The British Army receives 54 such UAVs, of which 24 will go to the reserve. Four Watchkeeper drones were deployed in Afghanistan in August 2014, but full combat readiness is expected no earlier than 2017.
The Italian UAV with a mass of 490 kg Selex ES Falco, which first took off in 2003, was developed only for the foreign market. The main buyer was Pakistan, which allegedly ordered 25 Falco vehicles in 2006 and received a license to manufacture them by the local company Pakistan Aeronautical Complex. In September 2013, a Middle East country, presumably Jordan or Saudi Arabia, placed an order worth € 40 million for a Falco UAV. Turkmenistan bought three, and the UN bought five, initially to support its operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Other relatively heavy UAVs that require a runway include the Yabhon-R weighing 570 kg and the Yabhon-R2 weighing 650 kg, manufactured by the Emirati company Adcom Systems. The Pakistani company Global Industrial and Defense Solutions produces 480-kg Shahpar, which is very similar to the Chinese UAV CH-3 from Cas with a mass of 630 kg.
The Sperwer from Sagem weighing 250 kg belongs to a significantly lighter category; it is one of the few successful European UAV programs with a total production of 150 units. Although several countries have removed it from service, the Sperwer drone is still in use in France, Greece, the Netherlands and Sweden. In 2011, France ordered three more Sperwer drones with an option of five more.
Other UAVs in the same weight category include the Chinese CH-92 UAV weighing 300 kg from CAAA, the South Korean RQ-101 Night Intruder 300 weighing 290 kg from KAI and the Russian Corsair weighing 250 kg manufactured by KB Luch, which is part of the Vega concern. … The Israeli Aerostar drone from Aeronautics weighing 220 kg was purchased by 15 countries.
The RQ-7B Shadow 200 UAV, manufactured by Textron Systems, weighing 170 kg, serves as a tactical UAV in the US Army and Marine Corps. It is also operated by the armies of Australia, Italy, Pakistan, Romania and Sweden. The Marine Corps, for example, has a need for an RQ-7B to deliver high-precision light air-to-ground missiles. To this end, several types of the latest laser / GPS guided missiles were tested, and among them the Fury gliding missile from Textron Systems, which is based on the FFLMM (FreeFall Lightweight Modular Missile) gliding modular missile weighing 5 kg developed by Thales.
FFLMM gliding missiles under the wing of a Watchkeeper 450 drone
The US Army's RQ-7B UAV (fleet of 117 drones) is currently being upgraded by Textron Systems to the Shadow Version 2 (V2) standard. This is a fully digital configuration, compatible with NSA frequencies and encryption. The Shadow V2 can carry a high definition optoelectronic complex. This UAV is deployed alongside a universal ground control station, which is also compatible with the Army Gray Eagle and Hunter UAVs.
The Shadow M2 from Textron Systems is distinguished by a modified fuselage and underwing pylons for attaching weapons. In the photo, a UAV with gliding missiles with laser / GPS guidance
The ScanEagle 2 UAV from Boeing / lnsitu weighing 23.5 kg has a diesel engine that generates electricity for various on-board equipment weighing up to 3.5 kg. The flight duration is 16 hours
Textron currently offers the Shadow M2 variant with a 48 kW Lycoming diesel engine, a modified fuselage with two equipment cargo bays, higher cruising speed, increased flight duration, satellite communications for over-the-horizon operations and attachment points for underwing equipment such as radio reconnaissance and RCB - intelligence.
Since we are talking about Textron, and, despite its small size, it must be said about the new version of Aerosonde, which is now equipped with a special single-piston Lycoming EL-005 4 horsepower engine, which runs on aviation kerosene of various brands Jet A, Jp5 or Jp8 and has an operating time between overhauls of 500 hours. The Aerosonde drone can stay aloft for 14 hours. It, like the previous model, takes off with the help of a catapult and although, as a rule, it returns due to capture by a net, it can land on the fuselage on the runway or an acceptable flat surface if strips of hard rubber are glued to the lower part of the fuselage (like those which are used to protect the doors of cars in the parking lot); Naturally, the Cloud Cap ball with the equipment in the nose is retracted at the same time inside the fuselage. This stabilized sensor kit includes a wide and narrow field of view camera as well as a mid-wave infrared camera. Aerosonde is also used as a signal reconnaissance platform thanks to a pallet of equipment installed under the fuselage as close to the drone's center of gravity as possible (this equipment is supplied by the state). At the end of 2013, a new engine was introduced, which was installed on about 100 drones. This UAV is operated by the command of special operations forces and the US Navy, where it performs its tasks with the participation of specialists from Textron.
To date, about 400 Aerosonde UAVs have been built; the range of tasks of this system now goes beyond the scope of purely military operations. One such system was sold to the Middle East to monitor oil and gas infrastructure by a company. Its operators were trained by Textron specialists and in mid-2014 began to independently operate their system.
From the Shadow M2, we move on to a system with a lower mass. The 61 kg RQ-21A Blackjack (former Integrator) UAV, developed by Insitu and Boeing, is a more functional modification of the smaller but highly successful ScanEagle drone. Adopted by the US Army and Marine Corps under the designation Stuas (Small Tactical UAS), this UAV is launched from a catapult and returned by the SkyHook (or officially the Stuas Recovery System).
The first RQ-21A system, consisting of five vehicles and two ground control stations, was deployed in Afghanistan in April 2014. The Marine Corps has a need for 32 systems, of which three were funded in 2014 and three in 2015. Funding is requested for another four systems for 2016 ($ 84.9 million). The US Navy has a need for 25 systems, of which three were funded in 2015. The Netherlands ordered five Blackjack systems and the unnamed Middle Eastern countries ordered six more.
One of the most common hand-launched reconnaissance UAVs, the Skylark 1-LE from Elbit. In service with Israeli Sky Rider units, exported to more than 20 countries
The most successful unmanned helicopter - Camcopter S-100 from the Austrian company Schiebel; over 100 of these systems have been sold. The photo shows one of the two vehicles operated in Ukraine under the auspices of the OSCE
9 to 25 kilograms
One of the most notable in the Group II category is the 22 kg ScanEagle from Insitu and Boeing. It is an evolution of the previous SeaScan model, which was designed to support commercial fishing. Thanks to its SuperWedge pneumatic catapult and the innovative Skyhook return system with differential GPS for accurate capture, the ScanEagle is independent from the runways.
The ScanEagle entered service with the US Navy in 2005 and is currently operated by the armed forces of 15 countries. In October 2014, Insitu introduced the ScanEagle 2 with a diesel engine and a number of improvements, although this reduced the flight duration from 20 to 16 hours. The Iranian company Iranian Aviation Industries Organization (IAIO) manufactures a scanned UAV ScanEagle under the name Yasir.
Other UAVs in this category include the Chinese 18-kg CH-803 from CAAA, the Israeli 20-kg Orbiter-III from Aeronautics and the 24-kg ThunderB from BlueBird Aero Systems, as well as the Russian 18-kg Orlan-10 from the Vega concern.
UAV Orlan-10
Less than 9 kilograms
The Group I category according to the Pentagon classification includes UAVs weighing less than 9 kg, mostly manual starting and operating on batteries. In this category, the first violin is played by AeroVironment with its 1.9 kg RQ-11 Raven, 5.9 kg RQ-20A Puma AE and 6.53 kg RQ-12A Wasp III, although Israeli UAVs are not far behind here.
The Puma drone is currently only used by the Americans, and the Wasp series UAV is also operated by the Australian and French armies and the Swedish armed forces. Raven UAVs are operated by 23 countries.
The main alternative to the aforementioned UAVs is the 7.5 kg Skylark I-LE from Elbit Systems, which is the standard system of the level of the Israeli army battalion (armed with the Sky Rider units of the artillery corps), and which has been delivered to more than 20 countries. In 2008, following a competition involving 10 different drone models, he was selected by the French special forces. This UAV performed tasks in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Russian light UAVs belonging to this category include the 421-04M Swallow weighing 4.5 kg and 421-16E weighing 10 kg manufactured by Zala Aero, which are in service with the Russian. Concern Kalashnikov recently acquired 51% of shares in Zala Aero. The Ministry of Defense is the operator of 5.3 kg Eleron-3SV from Enix, and the Irkut-10 UAV weighing 8.5 kg is operated by Kazakhstan and produced under license in Belarus.
UAV 421-16E
UAV Irkut-10
PD-100 Personal Reconnaissance System (PRS) weighing 16 grams from the Norwegian company Prox Dynamics became the first micro-UAV to reach operational readiness. It was used by the British Army and several coalition partners in Afghanistan. The redesigned PRS Block II was introduced in June 2014, followed in October 2014 by the PD-100 T with an integrated thermal imager and daytime camera.
The R-Bat from Northrop Grumman is based on the R-Max Yamaha helicopter UAV, which has flown over two million hours while spraying agricultural crops. Gasoline engine allows the heliport to remain airborne for more than two hours
The 255 kg Skeldar from Saab is primarily intended for marine applications. It has a 41 kW diesel engine, a payload of 40 kg and a flight duration of six hours.
Rotorcraft
Small-sized vertical take-off UAVs with their quiet operation, provided by batteries, are well suited for use by advanced units. Known examples include the 2 kg Spyball-B and 8.5 kg Asio-B helipads with annular propellers from Selex-ES, which are currently supplied to the infantry and reconnaissance units, respectively.
In the lighter category, the Israeli company IAI offers its machines with tilting screws, 12 kg mini-Panther and 65 kg Panther. These fixed-wing systems have flight times of 1, 5, and 4 hours, respectively; compare with 40 minutes of the Ghost weighing 4.8 kg of the same company, which has a tandem rotor design.
Ghost drone with tandem rotor design
Airbus D&S offers 12-kg Copter City UAVs and Copter 4 30-kg UAVs with flight times of 35 and 120 minutes, respectively. In 2014, it was announced that China was developing a Clean Energy Helicopter based on CAIC's 220 kg U8E.
The 93 kg R-Bat drone from Northrop Grumman is a reconnaissance version of the Yamaha R-Max, one of the lightest in its category. As a Yamaha product, it has flown over two million spray hours in Australia, Japan and South Korea. The R-Bat heliport has a flight duration of over 4 hours.
We increase the mass of the devices under consideration. The leading company in the field of military heliports is undoubtedly the Austrian Schiebel, which became the first to mass-produce and sell the S-100 heliport for defense missions in the 100 to 200 kg class. More than 250 of these units, also known under the designation Camcopter, have been sold. The success of Camcopter, and especially the apparent usefulness of such a category of UAVs for naval applications, has prompted others to join the fray. Schiebel developed a diesel engine for the Camcopter, which was scheduled to make its maiden flight in 2015. The S-100 helipad was manufactured under license by the Russian company Gorizont. In addition, official demonstrations of its capabilities were carried out on board frigates of different fleets (including French and German), as well as a carrier of active phased array radars, for example, the Selex Picosar and Thales I-Master (usually installed on Watchkeeper UAVs). This heliport was also seen on ships of the Chinese fleet.
Saab may have been the first to follow this path with its Skeldar heliport, but oddly enough, it focused not on the naval version, on the ground vehicle for the Swedish army, which ultimately abandoned it. After many modifications and versions (including the Skeldar M for the Navy), the Skeldar was brought up to the current Skeldar V-200 standard. It's a little strange, but Saab sold its first Skeldar drones to Spain, whose company Indra had been developing Pelicano for several years (which, like the first Skeldar variants, is also based on the Apid project), the real fate of which has not yet been determined. Indra is very evasive about this topic.
The next European manufacturer in chronological order is Cassidian, now part of Airbus. Its Tanan heliport was first unveiled to the public at the Paris Air Show in 2011 (not 2013, as is often reported). A distinctive feature of the Tanan 300 (as it was ultimately named) is that it is the first helicopter UAV to be powered by a diesel engine from the outset. In fact, he made his first flight two weeks before the exhibition in Paris.
Our parade ends with an Italian project presented at Euronaval 2014 by Ingeneria dei Sistemi. This company was created as a joint venture with Agusta Westland. The helipad of this project with a dead weight of 100 kg and a payload of 50 kg received the designation SD-150. Despite its public presentation at the end of 2014, it made its first flight in 2012 and managed to “check in” more than 150 times before the start of the exhibition. This heliport differs from all other vehicles of this type in that its propeller is not two-bladed, but three-bladed. UAV SD-150 is currently undergoing certification, as it is intended for the civil and defense markets. Not surprisingly, the Italian Marines have shown interest in this program (its blades can fold back for storage or hangar storage), especially given that the current 50hp engine must be replaced by a diesel engine of the same power.
The 330-kg Airbus Tanan 300 heliport with a diesel engine is designed to operate with a 50 kg sensor set within a radius of 180 km
Ingenieria Dei Sitemi's SD-150 Hero helicopter platform was developed in collaboration with Agusta Westland. It is distinguished from its analogs by a three-bladed propeller, but most of all it is struck by its ability to take off from 3000 meters. All flight and navigation systems are triple redundant
A few words about Japan. Some of the aforementioned projects would have had a tough time if Japanese helicopter manufacturers were allowed to develop and export military versions of their highly successful civilian models. In fact, the collaboration between Northrop Gumman and Yamaha is the first swallow in this area, but certainly not a new strategy in the defense sector.
Above has already been said about the relatively new company Ingeneria dei Sistemi; it is worth noting that it is also developing a lightweight fixed-wing reconnaissance UAV under the designation Manta in the 20 kg category. The modular apparatus has a unique quick-change modular compartment with a propulsion system, which allows in flight to change the engine, electric to gasoline and vice versa. The device is launched from the catapult and returns by parachute; several were sold to the Italian army for testing.
UAV Manta
Moving upward, we come to the devices of the Russian Helicopters company: Ka-135 with a mass of 300 kg, Ka-175 "Korshun" with a mass of 600 kg (later 700 kg) and Albatross with a mass of 3000 kg, which were shown as models in 2010. They all had counter-rotating coaxial propellers. Apparently, the Russian Ministry of Defense has issued contracts for the development of all three types. The first (Ka-135) was supposed to take off in 2015 and the last (armed with an Albatross UAV) in 2017.
Northrop Grumman's MQ-8 Fire Scout, based on the Schweizer 333, began life with the US Navy's need for 177 of these. Subsequently, the program for the MQ-8B drone weighing 1430 kg was stopped at 30 copies, which were replaced by 40 MQ-8C vehicles with the best characteristics weighing 2720 kg, based on the Bell 407 platform.
The MQ-8C can carry the Telephonies ZPN-4 radar, the Brite Star II thermal imaging system from Flir Systems and the Cobra hyperspectral mine detector and remain aloft for 10 hours. The initial operational readiness of this UAV is scheduled for the fall of 2016, but now it is supposed to be used only on frigates of the coastal zone. Future orders for the MQ-8C heliport could be received from the US Marine Corps and the Australian Navy.
After 33 months of successful operations, a K-Max helicopter weighing 5,443 kg manufactured by Lockheed Martin and Kaman Unmanned in Afghanistan, cargo UAV programs are becoming a priority. The US Army and Marines are currently defining their operational needs, especially with regard to greater autonomy in obstacle detection, collision avoidance and landing site selection. There is also interest in the possibility of transporting goods inside the vehicle in order to evacuate the wounded.
In addition to the K-Max team, there is also Aurora Flight Sciences, which is working on the H-6U Unmanned Little Bird, and Sikorsky, which is working on an upgraded UH-60MU with remote control. From the point of view of the US Army, the optionally piloted version of the ten-ton Black Black Haw can be quite attractive.
Larger and more functional version of the MQ-8C Fire Scout heliport during testing aboard the Jason Dunham (DDC-109) in late 2014
The loitering UAV Fire Shadow from MBDA weighs less than 200 kg, but has a flight duration of six hours and a range of up to 100 km. Its production started in 2012
Lethal UAVs
Armed UAVs have existed for several decades, while among our contemporaries we can name the loitering Harpy and Harop from IAI and Fire Shadow from MBDA and the small Switchblade from AeroVironment. This concept was further developed with the 20,215 kg X-47B technology demonstrator from Northrop Grumman, which had already taken off and landed on an aircraft carrier. It is also planned to test the refueling of this device in the air.
By 2016, the UK and France must resolve the issue of joint work on the stages of demonstration and production of the promising Future Combat Air System. The figure shows the alleged appearance of FCAS
The X-47B is methodically making its way into the US Navy's Uclass (Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike) program; and has reportedly already received the designation RAQ-25. Some conspiracy theorists believe the Uclass project is becoming less complex (focusing on surveillance instead of strike capabilities) as a secret US Air Force program has already begun to meet America's strike needs deep in enemy territory.
Europe has decided not to become dependent on the United States for combat UAVs. Dassault's 7,000 kg Neuron drone took off for the first time in December 2012. Half of the funds for the project was allocated by France, and the other half was divided between Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The Neuron is still undergoing extended flight tests. Following in August 2013 took off the British project Taranis weighing 8000 kg. In January 2014, at the Franco-British meeting, the "Declaration on Security and Defense" was issued, in which a statement was made on a joint project on a promising combat system FCAS (Future Combat Air System). In 2016, the two countries should decide whether they will cooperate in the demonstration and production stages.
