Image source: topwar.ru
The European defense industry has reached an important stage. Currently, EU countries are developing autonomous refueling of several UAVs with one air tanker.
This is reported by the press service of the European Defense Agency (EDA).
Experts from Spain, Germany and Belgium are participating in the project.
The cost of this stage of testing, which is considered the second, is eight million euros. At the first stage, automated aerial refueling was tested using an Airbus A330 MRTT tanker aircraft from the Tornado fighter jets of the German Air Force and the F-18 of the Spanish Air Force. The process was monitored using cameras, and stabilization was carried out using a braking parachute.
Image Source: topwar.ru
The main task of the second stage is to master the technology of relative navigation, which allows one aircraft to navigate relative to another, rather than relative to the surrounding space, for example, using GPS.
When this technology is mastered, it will increase the duration and extend the range of unmanned aerial vehicles. The drones will perform longer flights and move further away from the base without having to land for refueling.
However, now the European military is focusing more not on the development of unmanned technologies, but on protecting facilities and territories from enemy drones. Of all the EU anti-UAV programs, at most a third may be implemented due to funding problems.
