nEUROn: Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) by Dassault Aviation

• published: 10 Apr 2015
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The Dassault nEUROn is an experimental Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) being developed with international cooperation, led by the French company Dassault Aviation. This flying wing stealth UCAV project is the final phase of the French Dassault LOGIDUC 3-step stealth "combat drone" programme. Until June 2005 it had the form of the original Dassault developed Grand Duc vehicle: supersonic two-engined long-range unmanned bomber, capable of performing attacks with nuclear weapons. Under the pressure of the international cooperation, especially from Sweden and Saab, it was transformed into a demonstrator of smaller single-engine technology. So it is now optimised for the testing of various technologies for the future UAVs and UCAVs, and will not enter serial production. It will only clear the way for a commercial product, that will use the technologies developed thanks to the nEUROn program. The full scale replica of the current configuration was unveiled at the Paris Air Show 2005.[2] The nEUROn development, originally planned by Dassault as "AVE Grand Duc", evolved into a European cooperation including Swedish Saab AB, Greek EAB, Swiss RUAG Aerospace, Spanish EADS CASA and Italian Alenia, with Dassault as the lead contractor. As a "technology demonstrator", only one vehicle will be produced to explore new operational concepts for a future generation of autonomous stealth fighter aircraft that will be produced beyond 2020. This is advocated by the statement that the industrial partners want to invest more in technology development, rather than manufacturing of the flying hardware, despite the risk of the loss of the single prototype. However Dassault plans to primarily use the data collected by the demonstrator to produce derived UCAVs. The French maker states the nEUROn's Adour engine (tuned from the SEPECAT Jaguar) will be replaced in the production version by a more powerful, specific, engine based on Snecma's M88 from the Dassault Rafale.[3] According to the DGA, nEUROn test flights were planned in France, Sweden and Italy in early 2010, but were delayed.[4] Its first flight was at the end of 2012. While nEUROn was on display at the Paris Air Show 2013, it did not fly due to reluctance by European civil aviation authorities to allow UAVs to fly out of closed airspace.