The European Defence Agency (EDA) is scheduled to sign an agreement, on 9 February, with the European Space Agency (ESA) on research into new technology for communication links between unmanned aircraft and satellites, to ensure optimum transfer of real-time data. Under the agreement, the organisations will invest €400,000 each in a feasibility study. Each of them will conduct different parts of the study and then share the results. Officials from the two organisations will sign the agreement on the sidelines of a conference organised by the EDA in Brussels.

The aim is equip unmanned aerial systems that can be used for both military and civil purposes with communications equipment linking the drones to satellites that beam data back to authorities on the ground. The plan could become a model for wider cooperation between the EDA, the ESA and the European Commission, to avoid duplication through dividing up research projects among them and pooling the results in an effort to achieve synergies between civilian security, space and defence-related research.

The EDA has been focusing on the future use of unmanned aircraft, which are now widely used for military operations in such places as Afghanistan and are becoming increasingly seen as useful tools for civilian operations, such as border patrolling and maritime surveillance. However, their use is limited outside of war zones due to restrictions on flying them in regular air space.

In June last year, five EU member states, led by Sweden, signed up for a €50 million EDA research project known as the ‘MID-air Collision Avoidance System’ (MIDCAS), which aims, by 2012, to develop a prototype drone equipped with sense-and-avoid technologies so they will be able to detect other aircraft and change course to avoid the risk of collision. A first workshop in the MIDCAS framework will be held on 16 February at EUROCONTROL, the Brussels-based air safety organisation.

Meanwhile, the EDA’s chief executive is expected to fly to Washington, in May, for a second round of talks with Pentagon officials on possible cooperation between the Americans and Europeans on the ‘future transport helicopter’ project. On an initiative from France and Germany, the EDA is looking into the development of a new military transport helicopter to replace existing models and fill a key gap in the arsenals of many European forces. However, there is concern that the European market alone may not be big enough to cover the costs of development and the EDA held a first round of talks at the Pentagon in September on the possible joint development of the aircraft.

To help fill helicopter shortfalls in the shorter term, the EDA has agreed on a division of labour with NATO, under which the Atlantic alliance takes the lead in a programme to upgrade the Soviet-built helicopters owned by the militaries of many member nations in Eastern Europe, while the EDA takes charge of training of helicopter crews headed for long-distance missions.