LONDON \u2014 A third and possibly final series of flight tests planned for Britain’s Taranis unmanned combat air vehicle demonstrator is planned for later this year, according to the Ministry of Defence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An industry team led by BAE Systems completed two phases of trial flights at Woomera, Australia, between August 2013 and January 2014, and a third series of test flights is “now planned for the end of this year,” an MoD spokesman has <\/span>confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Martin Taylor, the managing director at BAE’s Military Aircraft business, said the company is in talks with the MoD about further flight test trials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first two phases of flights, investigating basic concepts and survivability, had gone <\/span>went “exceptionally well. The government [believes]is minded<\/span> we can do more with the test vehicle in support and in parallel with the work we are doing on the Anglo-French future combat air system [FCAS] program,” Taylor said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The British and French governments signed a \u00a3120 million (US $183.4 million) FCAS study last year to investigate the feasibility of jointly building an unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV). Each nation additionally injected a further \u00a340 million into national UCAV technology programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neither the government nor BAE would comment on the content of the next phase of flight tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The MoD spokesman said culmination of the third phase of flights would see spending on the Taranis program rise to “\u00a3202.3 million, about a third of which has been contributed by British industry.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n