Alenia Aeronautica, a Finmeccanica company, has recently delivered the weapon bay doors and mechanism for nEUROn (the new generation technology demonstrator for a European unmanned combat aerial vehicle - UCAV) to Dassault Aviation. This complex system was designed, built and integrated entirely by Alenia Aeronautica to include the weapon housing doors and the respective activation and control system.

The system delivered to Dassault Aviation fulfils the specific and extremely stringent programme requirements defined to ensure the very low observability of the aircraft. This required new design criteria to be adopted and the use of construction technologies. Alenia Aeronautica has patented the design for the “seal” around the perimeter of the weapon bay doors.

The programme, launched by the French Ministry of Defence and supported by Italy, Sweden, Spain, Greece and Switzerland, is to develop new technologies and lay the foundations for future unmanned aircraft programmes for military use.