EU Seeks To Develop UAS Strategy by Mid-2012

14 Jul 2011 By JULIAN HALE DefenseNews

BRUSSELS - The European Commission is aiming to put together a strategy for unmanned aerial systems (UASs) in the first half of 2012. Preparations for the strategy were launched at the Paris Air Show in June.

"The objective is to gather updated information on obstacles for the use of unmanned aircraft systems in Europe which would need to be removed, and to identify possible EU actions in this field," said the Commission's Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry.

"In order to collect the necessary expertise and input," the commission said it welcomes contributions from aviation rulemaking bodies, industries and other stakeholders on five subjects:

■ The economic importance of UASs.

■ Insertion into nonsegregated airspace, including radio-frequency management.

■ Safety-related issues and airworthiness.

■ The societal dimension.

■ Research and development.

Organizations wishing to send in contributions or attend the workshops should email entr-uas@ec.europa.eu. Dates of the workshops can be found here: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/aerospace/uas/index_en.htm.

Those attending include representatives from the European Commission, Eurocontrol, national civil aviation authorities and defense ministries. The European Defence Agency (eda) will also send representatives to the workshops.

"The creation of a common understanding [between the stakeholders] is necessary," an EDA official said. "Issues of sharing information also need to be addressed.

"The EDA is not procuring certain systems or hardware, but examining traffic insertion [of UASs] as a capability enabler," he said.

One technology project in which the EDA is involved is the Swedish-led Midair Collision Avoidance System (MIDCAS). The aim of MIDCAS, with a value of 50 million euros ($70.3 million), is to "demonstrate the baseline of solutions for the Unmanned Aircraft System Mid-air Collision Avoidance Function" acceptable to the manned aviation community and compatible with UAS operations in non-segregated airspace by 2015.