Airbus and Kawasaki Heavy to cooperate on Japanese variant of Eurodrone

TOKYO, June 26 (Reuters) - Airbus has signed a preliminary agreement with Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries to cooperate on a possible Japanese variant of a European defence drone, the aerospace company said on Friday.

The proposed arrangement in the memorandum of understanding, first reported by the Nikkei business daily, would enable Japan to develop a maritime anti-submarine warfare version of the delayed €7 billion ($8 billion) Eurodrone programme involving France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

This will be the first time a Japanese heavy industry company has partnered a foreign company on defence drones, Nikkei said. Japan has held observer status in the Eurodrone programme since 2023. 

Airbus said it would collaborate with Kawasaki on the design, development and commercialisation of a version tailored to Japanese requirements, including integration of Japanese sensors and weapons systems.

The Eurodrone U950, Europe's competitor to the U.S. Reaper, is an unmanned system capable of staying airborne for up to 40 hours. Its first flight is scheduled for 2029.

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(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama and Kantaro Komiya in Tokyo and Gianluca Lo Nostro in GdanskEditing by Chang-Ran Kim and David Goodman)