{"id":49759,"date":"2014-11-05T16:15:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T16:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=278b56420681c3b4bdf8d87f4259dd4e"},"modified":"2014-11-05T16:15:00","modified_gmt":"2014-11-05T16:15:00","slug":"news-story-120-million-anglo-french-defence-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=49759","title":{"rendered":"News story: \u00a3120 million Anglo-French defence contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>The co-operation contracts between the UK and French governments were agreed in Paris and will underpin the 2-year programme, known as a feasibility phase, for the development of future combat air systems. <\/p>\n<p>The work will involve 6 industry partners exploring concepts and options for the potential collaborative purchase of an unmanned combat air system (<abbr title=\"unmanned combat air system\">UCAS<\/abbr>).<\/p>\n<p>A <abbr title=\"unmanned combat air system\">UCAS<\/abbr> capability would, by the 2030\u2019s, be able to undertake sustained surveillance, mark targets, gather intelligence, deter adversaries and carry out strikes in hostile territories.<\/p>\n<p>The contracts award was announced by Bernard Gray, the Ministry of Defence\u2019s Chief of Defence Materiel, and his counterpart, Laurent Collet-Billon, head of the French Directorate General of Armaments.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A Watchkeeper WK450\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/32709\/45157024g.jpg\"><\/div><figcaption>A Watchkeeper WK450 remotely piloted air system flying over the UK during a test flight [Picture: Coypright Thales UK]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Mr Gray said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The development of unmanned combat air systems is of vital importance to the UK and France, which have the most capable and experienced armed forces in Europe and well-established defence industrial bases.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">By working together and drawing on a common vision we will see military, technological and financial benefit and sustain skills to fulfil our mutual needs and aspirations in the combat air sector.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The programme will develop and compare 2 national designs and concepts. Those designs will then lead to a joint one which could be used for any potential future <abbr title=\"unmanned combat air system\">UCAS<\/abbr> programme.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"image embedded\">\n<div class=\"img\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Taranis\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/image_data\/file\/32710\/45151634g.jpg\"><\/div><figcaption>Taranis, a prototype unmanned combat aircraft of the future [Picture: Copyrght BAE Systems]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The joint feasibility phase will involve both countries undertaking work worth around \u00a380 million in total. <\/p>\n<p>The programme follows a statement of intent at the Anglo-French security and defence summit at RAF Brize Norton in January and a programme arrangement at the Farnborough International Air Show in July this year. <\/p>\n<p>Both were signed by the then UK Secretary of State for Defence and his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian.<\/p>\n<p>The 6 partners involved in the development of the <abbr title=\"unmanned combat air system\">UCAS<\/abbr> concepts are BAE Systems, Dassault Aviation, Thales France, Selex ES, Rolls-Royce and Safran. <\/p>\n<p>The contract will run for 24 months and the results of the feasibility phase will then inform any potential follow-on Programme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A set of contracts worth \u00a3120 million have been awarded for the early phase of a development programme for unmanned combat air systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49759"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49806,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49759\/revisions\/49806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}