A European Drone by 2025? The View from Italy on EUROMALE

In May 2015, Italy agreed with France and Germany the launch of a definition study for a weaponized MALE RPAS which would able to carry out both ISR missions, target acquisition and engagement. Spain joined the group in December 2015. This cooperative effort is in principle open to other participants, following agreement of common operational requirements, and Poland could be an interesting new partner considering its planned investments on RPAS. The Italian Ministry of Defence will bear 23 per cent of the EUROMALE costs, namely 13.8 million euro, similar to French and Spanish MoDs, and supported the decision to task OCCAR to manage a 2‐year long contract for the EUROMALE definition study. The contract is supposed to be assigned to a consortium of European industries including Airbus, Dassault and Finmeccanica. However the industrial agreement is not yet entirely defined.

Such an approach to EUROMALE reflects the main features of the “Italian way” of participating in European cooperative programmes. The “Italian way” is not formally detailed in official documents. The 2015 Italian White Book for International Security and Defence established a number of strategic guidelines on European defence cooperation, i.e. by introducing the distinction between “cooperative” and “sovereign” technologies, but the Industrial and Technological Strategy to implement the White Book has yet to be defined. Despite this, it is possible to outline a de facto Italian way of doing European defence cooperation, which is the result of a common praxis and mindsets shared by national stakeholders, and underlies Italy’s approach to EUROMALE…