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So there is no MOD requirement and are unconvinced about the size of the force it might need, yet have already spent £350 million on it and might spend another £200-400 million by 2020 without even starting full development around 10 or 15 years away from a production type. Your looking at £1 billion on R&D even if the current low-level activity continues until 2030 (assuming it takes 10 years for development to achieve IOC in 2040). All this just to keep BAE in the game. By 2040 the US will have operational UCAVs, including operation from carriers. Doubtless BAE will feed into that US research in certain areas but will 15 more years of tinkering with one-off demonstrators be enough to keep pace?To the politicians of the 2025 & 2030 Defence Reviews, an off-the-shelf purchase of US UCAVs is going to look a tempting bargain compared with trying to replicate a similar programme from the few demonstrators that may follow Taranis, providing the investment to build/refit a new manufacturing plant for BAE Systems and manage all the inherent risks of delays and cost overruns and technical problems without an international partner, especially if the planned numbers are uneconomically small.
So there is no MOD requirement and are unconvinced about the size of the force it might need, yet have already spent £350 million on it and might spend another £200-400 million by 2020 without even starting full development around 10 or 15 years away from a production type. Your looking at £1 billion on R&D even if the current low-level activity continues until 2030 (assuming it takes 10 years for development to achieve IOC in 2040). All this just to keep BAE in the game. By 2040 the US will have operational UCAVs, including operation from carriers. Doubtless BAE will feed into that US research in certain areas but will 15 more years of tinkering with one-off demonstrators be enough to keep pace?
To the politicians of the 2025 & 2030 Defence Reviews, an off-the-shelf purchase of US UCAVs is going to look a tempting bargain compared with trying to replicate a similar programme from the few demonstrators that may follow Taranis, providing the investment to build/refit a new manufacturing plant for BAE Systems and manage all the inherent risks of delays and cost overruns and technical problems without an international partner, especially if the planned numbers are uneconomically small.
