EADS Re-thinking Talarion UAV Push

EADS appears to be rethinking its push of the Talarion unmanned aircraft, after a prolonged period of unsuccessfully trying to get Germany and other European countries to back its development.


“For the time being we are not pushing the development of Talarion,” EADS CEO Louis Gallois says. Instead, “we have decided to work on technology programs linked to drones.”

EADS continues to fly its Barracuda unmanned aircraft demonstrator and, this year, plans another flight test campaign in Goose Bay, Canada.


But that does not mean EADS has made its peace with the decision in France and the U.K. to back the BAE Systems/Dassault Aviation Telemos unmanned aircraft for their future medium-extended, long-endurance system. The Anglo-French system is due to be fielded around 2020.

Gallois says there has to be a European program. “One or two countries cannot afford to develop” such a system alone, he argues. “We need to have a wider market,” he says, or Europe will continue buying U.S. or Israeli systems.