The European Agency for the procurement of arms, or OCCAR, officially invited the aircraft manufacturer Airbus to participate into tender as the prime contractor for the European MALE RPAS Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) The European MALE RPAS, is also known as the EuroMALE. The UAV will be operated worldwide to especially support ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) missions. The Agency announced on 8 November.

The invitation to Airbus comes just ahead of completion of the design-definition phase for the European MALE RPAS that it is being developed on behalf of Germany and Spain alongside Dassault of France and Leonardo of Italy.

To date, Germany has said that it will procure 21 aircraft, France has said it will buy eight through to 2030, while Spain recently said that it will buy eight. Italy has yet to divulge its procurement plan.

In August 2016, the MALE RPAS Programme was integrated into OCCAR and the Definition Study contract was signed on 26 August 2016.

The Participating States endorsed in July 2017 the baseline configuration “twin-engine turboprop” for the further Definition Study activities. Further, in January 2018, the SRR was passed and accepted by OCCAR-EA.

In December 2017 Belgium obtained the observer status to the MALE RPAS Programme.