AIRSHOW-Safran open to drone partnerships

PARIS, June 14 (Reuters) - France's Safran (SAF.PA) is open to industrial partnerships to create aerial surveillance drones, a company executive told a news conference on Sunday ahead of the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget.

The aerospace, defence and security group currently makes tactical military drones, but wants to branch out into unmanned aircraft for both military and civilian use, such as border monitoring, he said.

"We are open to all types of partnerships, notably with industrial partners that have acquired expertise and experience in the domain of this type of aircraft," said Jean-Lin Fournereaux, head of Sagem defence security, a Safran unit. (Reporting by Matthias Blamont; Writing by James Regan, editing by Martin Golan)