The scheme for a pilotless aircraft built by the three EU powers could be worth up to a billion euros ($1.2 billion) if it gets airborne, officials said after the deal was signed in Brussels

A European project to build a military drone by 2025 took wing on Monday as Germany, France and Italy signed a deal to start technical work and end their reliance on US- and Israeli-made models.

The scheme for a pilotless aircraft built by the three EU powers could be worth up to a billion euros ($1.2 billion) if it gets airborne, officials said after the deal was signed in Brussels.

"The goal of the Euro-drone is that we can decide by ourselves in Europe on what we use it, where we deploy the Euro-drone and how we use it," German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said.

"This makes us, the Europeans, independent."

For a decade, European powers have tried and failed to come up with a common drone project, meaning that Britain, Italy and France currently use US-made Reaper drones. Germany and France also use Israeli-built machines.

The three countries first agreed to cooperate on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in 2013.

The medium-altitude, long-endurance European drone will be designed for intelligence and reconnaissance missions and will be able to carry a "variety of payloads," according to a statement after the signing.

Airbus, France's Dassault Aviation and Italy's Alenia Aermacchi are behind the proposal.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the Euro-drone deal was a "very important step for European cooperation."

Other European countries including Spain and Poland could get involved at a later stage, officials said.

The two-year technical assessment will try to find common ground between Germany, France and italy on operational needs, performance, timing and cost, they said.

Explore further EU powers to jointly produce new-generation drones

© 2015 AFP