The corresponding commercial MIDCAS contract was also signed by EDA on behalf of the five contributing Member States (CMs) with the MIDCAS industry consortium, consisting of the following co-contractors:
Saab AB (publ), Saab Aerosystems (appointed as Coordinator); Alenia Aeronautica S.p.A; Diehl BGT Defence GmbH & Co. KG; Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft; EADS Deutschland GmbH; ESG Elektroniksystem- und Logistik-GmbH; Galileo Avionica S.p.A; INDRA SISTEMAS S.A; Italian Aerospace Research Centre CIRA S.c.p.A; Sagem Défense Sécurité; Selex Communications S.p.A; SELEX Sistemi Integrati S.p.A; and THALES Systèmes Aéroportés S.A.
From left to right: Dr. Gunnar Hult, from FMV (Sweden), representing the MIDCAS contributing Member States, Alexander Weis, Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency, and Lennart Sindahl, Executive Vice President Saab, speaking on behalf of the Consortium. Credits: European Defence Agency
The pilot's responsibility to "see and avoid" needs an equivalent mechanism in Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), hence a Sense & Avoid (S&A) system to determine the presence of potential collision threats and manoeuvering clear of them.
“This is key for future military UAV based capabilities and a key technology for the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base. With this technology, Europe will become world leading in this area”, said Alexander Weis, Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency.
This work will be conducted in close co-operation with European organizations, e.g. EUROCONTROL, EUROCAE (European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment) and EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency).
Transatlantic coordination will happen throughout the project with organisations such as the Radio Technical Commision for Aeronautics (RTCA) and the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA). The intention is to demonstrate by actually flying a UAS in non-segregated air space at the end of the project, where the process of approval together with a national Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for such a flight will be one of the main contributions to the standardisation work.
At the Le Bourget Air Show, on 17 June, the five contributing Member States, cMS, have signed the Project Arrangement, whilst EDA has signed the contract worth approximately € 50m with the MIDCAS Industry consortium.
EDA has signed the contract on behalf of the cMS with the following co-contractors: Saab AB (publ), Saab Aerosystems (appointed as Coordinator), Alenia Aeronautica S.p.A, Diehl BGT Defence GmbH & Co. KG, Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, EADS Deutschland GmbH, ESG Elektroniksystem- und Logistik-GmbH, Galileo Avionica S.p.A, INDRA SISTEMAS S.A, Italian Aerospace Research Centre CIRA S.c.p.A, Sagem Défense Sécurité,Selex Communications S.p.A, SELEX Sistemi Integrati S.p.A and THALES Systèmes Aéroportés S.A.
The project logic will to a large extent be based on the development of a safety case which in turn will be supported by a large amount of simulations. Data from performed demonstrations and flight tests will be used to correlate the simulations for confidence. The goal is to reach a maturity level of the safety case enough to enable a final demonstration with a UAS in non-segregated airspace at the end of the project.
Performing the development and standardisation for future Sense & Avoid technology in parallel with utilising gained knowledge from EDA and national projects as a basis is considered a key contribution for integration of manned and unmanned aviation flying routinely in non-segregated airspace. This integration of manned and unmanned traffic will unlock the potential of usage of UAS in many military, security and civil applications.