http://www.janes.com/news/defence/air/jdw/jdw081201_1_n.shtml
National and EU experts from government, industry and the military are collectively reviewing how to promote Europe's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sector by stimulating stronger dual-use linkages between its military and civil security UAV communities.
A key application of UAV systems will be to help the 27 EU countries attain collective situational awareness around their shared external borders, for which a conceptual blueprint could emerge in the first half of 2009, according to EU officials.
A wide range of UAV challenges - ranging from technological to research-orientated to regulatory - were discussed during a 10 November workshop in Brussels, sponsored by the European Commission (EC), that brought together UAV stakeholders from across Europe.
At issue was how to promote UAV technologies for dual-use applications to carve out a place for European industry in the global market for UAVs and unmanned aerial systems (UASs). Such a goal demands complex and lengthy preparatory steps, according to industry and government experts who attended the meeting.
For instance, it entails synchronising UAV research funded by the European Defence Agency (EDA) for military purposes with that supported by the EC for civil security applications.
It also requires streamlining national and international regulatory air traffic management regimes to get agreement on pan-EU performance standards for UAV sense-and-avoid (S&A) technologies.
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