유럽의 UAV 개발자들의 발걸음이 바쁘군요. 현재 진행중인 Neuron and EuroMALE 등의 UAV 사업에 공동으로 참여하여 미국과의 기술격차를 줄이는데 안간힘을 쓰고 있다고 합니다. 가장 두각을 나타내고 있는 무인기가 프랑스와 스웨덴, 그리스, 이탈리아, 스페인, 스위스등이 참여하는 Neuron 인것 같은데 2009~2010년경에 첫 비행을 예정하고 있습니다. 진행상황은 두고봐야겠지만 현재까지는 순항중이고, 영국만 독자적인 무인기 개발에 힘쓰는것 같은 분위기 입니다. 2010년에 첫비행을 한다면 2015년 정도면 배치가 가능할것 같네요. 세계적인 분위기는 이런데 우리는 참... ㅡㅡ " http://www.flightinternational.com/Articles/2006/01/24/Navigation/177/204254/European+UAV+makers+urged+to+work+together.html " European UAV makers urged to work together European manufacturers of remote sensors need to bridge the technology gap that exists between them and their US counterparts to avoid missing out on a potentially huge market for military and civil unmanned air vehicles. European suppliers need to work together, and with their overseas counterparts, to “urgently address the existing capability gap between Europe and the USA, while confronting competition from their US-based rivals”, says consultancy Frost & Sullivan. To keep up with the USA on technology, European UAV manufacturers must form joint technology demonstrator projects that will eventually become development programmes, such as Neuron and EuroMALE. This will help them overcome the technology gap with the USA, which affects the “reliability, footprint, autonomous level and specific capabilities of UAVs”, says Frost & Sullivan aerospace and defence consulting manager Shai Shammai. But they should not overlook the opportunities provided by collaboration with Israeli and USA companies, he adds. “While both Israeli and US companies need the European primes for their access to markets, the nature of these collaborations will be different depending on the origin of the company.” If European manufacturers fail to bridge the gap, they risk missing out on a share of a booming market Shammai says. “I believe that we are witnessing a paradigm change, with armed forces undergoing a major transformation towards the unmanned. Moreover, the aerospace industry as a whole is shifting to unmanned.” UAVs are likely to be performing many civil and commercial security, monitoring, rescue and communication missions within the next 10 years, he says. Cost could be a major restricting factor in the switch from manned to unmanned aircraft as defence budgets continue to be squeezed. The “challenge of UAV integration and the fact that it is still a secondary concern for many nations”, combined with the industry’s long development lead-times, could hamper the potential market for UAVs. These factors could have the greatest impact on expensive systems, such as medium altitude, long-endurance UAVs and the “less essential systems like unmanned combat vehicles”, Shammai says. " http://products.saab.se/PDBWeb/ShowProduct.aspx?ProductCategoryId=268&ProductGroupId=283&ProductId=1259 " NEURON - European UCAV Programme      In cooperation with French Dassault, Saab is developing an UAV with combat capabilities. UCAV is designed to be a platform for evaluation of future cutting-edge technology, by example; advanced avionics, autonomy, stealth technology and adaptation to network based defense solutions. Saab is focusing on areas such as: - overall/general design - avionics systems - airworthiness - autonomy - multiload capabilities - structural design and manufacturing - ground/flight Testing First flight is planned to 2009. "UCAV" stands for Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle.