nEUROn UCAV
UCAV demonstrator
The nEUROn program is a partnership of six European countries jointly developing a European UCAV demonstrator."If Europe wants to remain at the forefront of post-industrial world, its aerospace industry must capitalize on the experience gained through its new generation combat aircraft programs.", according to program statements.
The program is lead by the French Dassault Aviation corporation in collaboration with Sweden (Saab), Greece (HAI), Switzerland (RUAG), Spain (EADS-CASA and Italy (Alenia). The French government will provide half of the program’s 400 million euro (US$480 million) budget while the remaining funds will be supplied by the other participating member nations.
nEUROn, as a technology demonstrator, is designed to be a platform for evaluation of future cutting-edge technology.
"There is no operational need for Neuron. It’s just a technology demonstrator. It's never going to be operational; it's never going to be produced in series. There will be just one demonstrator," according to Yves Robins, vice president for international relations at Dassault Aviation
The program has three goals:
- Maintain and develop the skills of the participating European aerospace companies' design offices.
Robins explains that the new generation of aircraft coming into service, such as Rafale, Eurofighter and the Joint Strike Fighter, will be active for at least 30 years before they are replaced. Because of this longevity, there will be no opportunity for European industry to start a new program before 2030. “You need to maintain the know-how and the skill of your design offices by giving them a program on which they can develop what they already have,” Robins says. - Investigate and validate the technologies that will be needed by 2015 to design next-generation combat aircraft.
Robins notes that it does not matter if it is a manned or unmanned platform because many of the technologies apply to both types of aircraft.
- Validate an innovative cooperation process by establishing a European industry team responsible for developing next-generation combat aircraft.
The work will include designing more efficient ways to cooperate, methods to operate within budgetary constraints and processes that respect individual nations’ planning and agenda issues. “What we wanted when we selected our partners was not to develop a capability that did not exist, but to build on existing capabilities and further enhance them in a cost-efficient way. It’s rather easy to build a stealth platform. But is it easy to build an affordable one?” he offers.
The nEUROn UCAV demonstrator is expected to perform its maiden flight by 2011.
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