EU’s response to NSA? Drones, spy satellites could fly over Europe The European Union is pondering an EU Commission proposal to acquire a fleet of surveillance drones, satellites, and planes as part of an “ambitious action” to boost the European defense industry. It follows revelations of the NSA’s spying programs. The European Commission has issued a 17-page report, proposing some concrete steps that would encourage pan-European defense cooperation. “Maintaining and developing defense capabilities to meet current and future challenges in spite of severe budget constraints will only be possible if far-reaching political and structural reforms are made. The time has come to take ambitious action,” the Commission’s report said. One of the actions suggested in the report is funding a pre-commercial procurement scheme to acquire prototypes of some technologies – including drones. The full list of technology candidates includes equipment to detect chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives threats (CBRNE), “communication equipment based on software defined radio technology,” and remotely-piloted aircraft systems (RPAS), otherwise known as drones. rt/news/eu-drones-proposal-nsa-678/
Posted on: Sun, 28 Jul 2013 07:51:12 +0000