"Breakthrough Technology" Currently Fragmented

It has been called important breakthrough technology that can significantly contribute to meeting the European Security and Defense Policy (ESD) operations' objectives. And it's being developed all over the globe through a variety of projects and programs to meet different goals and objectives.

Welcome to the world of the Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV); the Navy; our local police; Israeli national security; the National Guard ; the US military; and more.

Across the pond, the ESD, the European Commission, and the Aerospace and Defense Industries Association of Europe (ASD) are working jointly to establish a complementary co-operation agenda, reports UVonline.

The main objective is to address the challenge of allowing UAVs to operative alongside conventional air traffic, a key to expanding their use beyond military into the security and commercial domains and creating a demand around which European industry can unite.

The initiative is starting with a European Defense Agency-funded roadmap study that will evaluate the current state in which military UAVs fly in segregated airspace, to where, by 2012, civilian and government-operated UAVs could operate alongside other manned aircraft in an integrated airspace.

Working at a European level can generate projects for both security-oriented and commercial UAVs, as well as address their military use. It also encourages the development of multi-purpose technologies, supported by budgets of the Commission as well as investment by industry.

So watch out while you're in Europe. As ANN has reported, you could see UAVs patrolling the borders of European countries; or, you could be in Wales, where the world center of excellence for the development and testing of UAVs recently opened.

In fact... UAVs could be anywhere!

FMI: www.auvsi.org , www.eda.europa.eu