Drones

Lawmakers criticize Air Force for mothballing $3.8 billion worth of UAVs

By Andrea Shalal-Esa, Reuters

From Andrea Shalal-Esa, Reuters:  Lawmakers on Tuesday called top Air Force officials to task over recent acquisition missteps and raised concerns about their budget plans for fiscal 2013, which calls for cancellation of Northrop Grumann Corp’s unmanned Global Hawk plane.

Thieves grab top-secret plans for joint French/UK UAV

By Paul Roberts, ThreatPost

Britain and France plan joint expeditionary force and carrier group

By defensemanagement.com

From defensemanagement.com:  The UK and France are to deepen defence cooperation efforts, speeding up work on a new joint expeditionary force and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) programmes, Prime Minister David Cameron has announced.

NATO to spend almost $4 billion on UAV program

By Justyna Pawlak, Reuters

From Justyna Pawlak, Reuters: NATO is to buy five U.S.-made unmanned drone aircraft capable of countering Afghan insurgents, hunting pirates off Somalia or monitoring arms embargoes, an alliance official said on Wednesday. . . . "The acquisition itself is plus 1 billion (euros)," a NATO official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. The cost […]

France and Italy contributed unarmed UAVs to NATO’s Libya operation

By Aviation International News

From Aviation International News:  [French air force commander General Jean-Paul] Palomeros told the Dubai Air Chiefs Conference last November that “at least 30” medium-altitude long endurance (MALE) UAVs should have been deployed to support the NATO air action over Libya last year.

NATO clears funding hurdle to buy five Global Hawks

By Stephen Trimble, Flight Global

US should give NATO the Global Hawks it plans to mothball

By Jorge Benitez, Atlantic Council

The Department of Defense announced today that it is terminating its purchase of the Block 30 variant of Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4 Global Hawk. The Block 30 Global Hawk is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and “multi-intelligence platform” designed to simultaneously carry imagery and signals intelligence.

NATO to sign delayed UAV deal before Chicago Summit

By Flightglobal

From Flightglobal:  NATO’s long-running process to order an Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) capability could at last achieve a contract signature within the next few months, although the scale of its programme appears to have again been revised.