The Ministry of Defence has completed its campaign of stealth flight testing of the Neuron UCAV technology demonstrator. These tests were conducted by the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) from Istres, as were the manufacturer testing by Dassault Aviation, which they followed beginning on October 31, 2014. The final flight – which was also the 100th flight of the aircraft – took place on February 26. nEUROn flight testing will now continue overseas until the end of the year, first in Italy and then in Sweden.

The DGA testing campaign measured the radar and infrared signatures of nEUROn and confronted it with various operational sensors, particularly ground and airborne radar, as well as with missile seekers. This involved the expertise of several research centres including DGA Flight Testing (at Istres and Cazaux) DGA Information Dominance (Bruz) and DGA Aeronautical Techniques (Toulouse). Valuable lessons were learned on the stealth features of this type of aircraft.

DGA is the overall authority of the nEUROn project, and awarded the contract to industry in 2006. It is the result of European cooperation that brings together, in addition to France with Dassault Aviation as prime contractor, five partner countries and their national manufacturers: Italy (Alenia Aermacchi), Sweden (Saab), Spain (Airbus Defence & Space), Greece (HAI) and Switzerland (RUAG). The first flight of nEUROn took place in Istres on December 1, 2012.

nEUROn marks a major research and technology effort by the Ministry of Defence for the future, and supports and maintains essential industry skills. It foreshadows the next generation of fighter aircraft, whether manned or unmanned, with the ambition of preserving European autonomy in this field.

The experience France gained from nEUROn is already being exploited in the Franco-British future UCAV project (Future Combat Air System, FCAS), whose industry studies were launched on November 5, 2014.

Programme Milestones

The nEUROn programme was launched in 2003. The main contract was notified to the prime contractor in 2006, the industrial partnership contracts were signed concurrently. The first flight of the technological demonstrator was completed on December 1, 2012, in Istres (France).

Demonstration Flights

The scenarios to be validated through the demonstration flights will be as follows:

• insertion in the test range airspace,
• air-to-ground subsonic mission,
• detection, localisation and autonomous reconnaissance of ground targets without being detected (“to see withoutbeing seen”),
• air-to-surface weapon release from an internal bay.

Programme Status

At the end of 2012, the status of the nEUROn programme is the following:

1. The different parts of the airframe have been manufactured and are delivered to Dassault Aviation in Istres facilities:
• the main fuselage by Saab,
• the rear fuselage and the exhaust nozzle by HAI,
• the wings by EADS-CASA,
• the bay doors by Alenia,
• the weapon interface by RUAG,
• the structural parts contributing to the low observability by Dassault Aviation factories of Argenteuil and Biarritz.
2. The final assembly and the final layout of the piping, electrical wiring and equipment installation, including the engine and the landing gear were completed in the Dassault Aviation facilities.
3. The software integration in the various electronic equipments was completed, using the “global integration tests rig” in Istres.
4. He ground tests (hydraulics, electrical, fuel), soon to be followed by comprehensive engine tests, took place throughout 2012 with a first flight at the end of 2012.
5. The maiden flight was completed on December 1, 2012. This first sortie proceeded exactly as expected. It lasted 25 minutes and validated the vehicle’s main flight parameters. Take-off was entirely automatic and the aircraft reached an altitude of about 2,000 metres, before turning round, completing the approach and then landing.