BAE Systems and Dassault Aviation on Thursday announced the formation of Telemos, a joint program to develop the next generation Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS).
The two companies will jointly present the Telemos program at the Paris Air Show later this month.
Following the signing of an exclusive Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two companies earlier this year, the Telemos program will "ensure that the considerable end-to-end systems capabilities of both BAE Systems and Dassault are successfully brought together to deliver a joint proposal to the U.K. and French Ministries of Defence for the design, development, production and support of a MALE UAS that will help safeguard the sovereign operational capability of the U.K. and France in the future."
"Since the signing of the MOU earlier this year we have continued to work together to ensure that, as soon as the two governments formally launch their requirement, we are well placed to develop the future frontline capability they require. We have already set up a joint team and will look to strengthen this with other leading industry players to ensure that the Telemos programme will develop a cost-effective, autonomous system in the required timescales," said Peter Richardson, strategy and technology director for BAE Systems Military Air & Information.