The European Defence Agency’s (EDA) Member States France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden (as lead nation) have signed a Project Arrangement on the MID-air Collision Avoidance System (MIDCAS) at the Paris Air Show on June 17th 2009. This project will also gather companies from different Member States within the  MIDCAS industry consortium.

The European Defence Agency (EDA) Steering Board in Defence Ministers formation tasked EDA in May 2007 to develop and propose a strategic road map for the seamless integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into non-segregated airspace by 2015. The roadmap study was performed during 2008-09 by the Air4All Industry Consortium. The study concluded that one of the main issues that need to be solved is the requirements for traffic separation and mid-air collision avoidance in non-segregated air space, also related to as “Sense and Avoid”.

Sense & Avoid (S&A) is defined as the process of determining the presence of potential mid-air collision threats and maneuvering clear of them. The EDA technological study on Sense & Avoid achieved in 2006-2007 allowed to demonstrate initial feasibility of S&A systems for UAS and pointed out the necessity for further safety and performance demonstration initiatives at the European level.

Five EDA participating Member States (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden - the last one is the lead nation) have decided to address this issue through the MID-air Collision Avoidance System (MIDCAS) project, which is an EDA Ad Hoc Category B project. The value of the contract will be approximately € 50m and last for 48 months.

The overall objectives of MIDCAS are to demonstrate the technology for a S&A system for UAS able to fulfill the requirements for traffic separation and mid-air collision avoidance in non-segregated airspace and, in close cooperation with European organisations such as EUROCONTROL, EUROCAE (European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment) and EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency), to provide the technical background for them to establish a S&A standard.

Transatlantic coordination will be conducted 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) will be one of the main contributions to the standardisation work.

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
• THALES Systèmes Aéroportés S.A.