“Three top European defence firms called on Sunday on governments to launch a programme to manufacture drones that European countries are currently having to buy from Israel or the United States. France’s Dassault Aviation, European aerospace giant EADS and Italy’s Finmeccania argued such a joint programme would ‘support the capability needs of European armed forces while optimising the difficult budgetary situation through pooling of research and development funding’. They said they were prepared to work together on the creation of a European drone which allows surveillance of vast areas over 24 hours.”
