France completes testing of Neuron UCAV

[BLACKEAGLE]

Frédéric Lert, Bordeaux - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly
10 March 2015

France has completed its flight test campaign of the Neuron unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) technology demonstrator, the country's defence procurement agency has stated.

Flight trials were completed on 26 February, according to the Direction générale de l'armement (DGA), 26 months after the UCAV's first flight on 1 December 2012.

France has completed its set of flight trials on the pan-European Neuron UCAV technology demonstrator. (Dassault Aviation)

The flight trial programme included 100 flights, split into two main phases. With the French part of the programme completed, the pan-European UCAV will now move to Italy and then Sweden for further testing.

The first phase of testing focused on the aircraft's flight envelope and checking its systems. This included around 80 flights and the same amount of flight hours, with the aircraft operated by Dassault under the leadership of the DGA.
France completes testing of Neuron UCAV - IHS Jane's 360

 

[crimsonghost747]

Nice to see some european advances in drone technology! I'm a big skeptical though due to the fact that they want to build and test it all over Europe, that kind of unnecessary (in my opinion) geographical spreading of workload just takes time and money and makes the whole process less effective.

 

[Lieutenant]

Nice to see some european advances in drone technology! I'm a big skeptical though due to the fact that they want to build and test it all over Europe, that kind of unnecessary (in my opinion) geographical spreading of workload just takes time and money and makes the whole process less effective.

Takes time and money!! Military drones are not Dominos DomiCopter. They are very essential and play an important role in surveillance and special operations like you see in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.

 

[crimsonghost747]

Takes time and money!! Military drones are not Dominos DomiCopter. They are very essential and play an important role in surveillance and special operations like you see in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.

I know. But what does that have to do with the fact that this decentralized R&D and production is ineffective? Just take a look at other military projects that have been done in a similar fashion, NH90 comes to mind first. Same with the Eurofighter... France eventually left the Eurofighter program and started their own, which they managed to get operational years before the Eurofighter entered active service.

 

[Khafee]