Europe is in a hurry to pick up an unarmed drone for use over Ukraine, where a separatist group this month shot down a commercial airliner, killing everyone on board.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has posted on its website a solicitation for a “turnkey” solution to monitoring the area. The UAV would be deployed under the authority of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine at the request of the Ukrainian government.
“The (OSCE) monitors are to contribute to reducing tensions and fostering peace, stability and security,” according to the group’s website.
The procurement posting states that bids have to be into the OSCE no later than 5 pm Central European Time or 5 pm EST. Procurement documents are linked from the online ad.
A Ukrainian group with close ties to Russia allegedly took down Malaysian Airlines 417 last week. Russia has denied any connection to the incident though the U.S. has been building a case to show the government of Vladimir Putin supplied the Ukrainian group with the weaponry capable of taking down the Boeing 777 airliner.
So far, however, intelligence officials say they have not found a direct link between the rebels action and Russia.
The plane went down near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, about 25 miles from the Russian border.
The plane was en route from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to Kuala Lampur in Malaysia. Nearly 300 people were aboard.
Investigators led by the Dutch, are on the ground in Ukraine trying to collect evidence and recover the remains of the plane’s passengers and crew.
Meanwhile, the separatists on Wednesday claimed they shot down two Ukrainian military planes.
Bryant Jordan can be reached at bryant.jordan@monster.com.
