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2016-03-01

TOMORROW IS HERE WITH nEUROn

European nations join forces for UCAV

nEUROn is a European programme for an unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) technology demonstrator, conducted by Dassault Aviation as prime contractor under the authority of French defense procurement agency DGA. It heralds tomorrow’s defense programs, since it federates expertise from across Europe, specifically France, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Greece and Switzerland.

The nEUROn programme is designed to validate the development of complex technologies representing all mission systems: high-level flight control and stealth, launching real air-to-ground weapons from an internal bay, integration in the C4I environment, innovative industrial collaboration processes and so on. The demonstrator made its first flight in 2012.

The aim of the nEUROn demonstrator is to provide the European design offices with a project allowing them to develop know-how and to maintain their technological capabilities in the coming years.

This project has gone far beyond the theoretical studies that had been conducted, with the assembly and the successful flight demonstration of an unmanned combat aircraft.

Innovative process

It is also a way to implement an innovative process in terms of management and organisation of a European cooperative programme.

To be fully effective, a single point of decision, the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA – Délégation Générale pour l’Armement), and a single point of implementation, Dassault Aviation company as prime contractor, were settled on to manage the nEUROn programme.

The Italian, Swedish, Spanish, Greek and Swiss governments, acting with their related industrial teams, Alenia, SAAB, EADS-CASA, Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI) and RUAG, have joined the French initiative.

The aim of the nEUROn programme is to demonstrate the maturity and the effectiveness of technical solutions, but not to perform military missions.

The main technological challenges addressed during the development phase of the nEUROn were: the shapes of the air vehicle (aerodynamic, innovative composite structure, and internal weapon bay), technologies related to low observability issues, insertion of this type of aircraft within the test area, high-level algorithms necessary to the development of the automated processes, and the place of the human factor within the mission loop.

Network-centric capable

The last important technology which will be demonstrated is the capability to carry and deliver weapons from an internal bay. Today, European aircraft are designed with external loading capabilities for bombs and missiles.

The following goals were met during in-flight trials:

– demonstrating an air-to-ground mission, with the detection, localization and reconnaissance of ground targets in autonomous modes,

– assessing the detectability of a stealth platform facing ground or aerial threats, in terms of radar cross section and infrared signature.

It is clear that through these demonstration missions, the goals are to validate technologies around command and control of an unmanned air vehicle of a size similar to a combat aircraft, with all back-up modes insuring necessary safety and security. The nEUROn system is network-centric capable.

The programme of the nEUROn technological demonstrator is organised as follows.

There’s a single executive agency - the French DGA which awarded a main contract to the prime contractor and manages the project.

A single prime contractor, Dassault Aviation is in charge of the main contract implementation.

Best efficiency

Ever since the beginning of the programme, the French authorities have clearly stated their will that the UCAV technological demonstrator project should contribute to the build-up of a European defence identity by fully opening it to cooperation. As such, about half of the tasks are entrusted to non-French industrial partners.

In terms of management, this organisation guarantees the best efficiency in a full partnership approach and cooperative relations between the various actors, as well as an improved budgetary control.

In accordance with the guidelines defined by the French DGA, Dassault Aviation has entrusted about 50% of the work value to European partners, elected after a scrutinized evaluation.

Experience and excellence

The objective of this project is not to create new technological capabilities everywhere in Europe, but to take the full benefit of the already existing technological niches.

Competitiveness

This project has the ambition to find new ways for costs reduction. Each partner, in addition to their technical excellences, is invited to apply for the most efficient “value for money”.

State budget allocation

It is a condition imposed by the French DGA that each country having the ambition to participate to the nEUROn programme shall contribute to its financing. For more flexibility, no constraint in term of “geographical return” is assigned to this project, as already dealt with at governmental level.

The industrial team of the nEUROn programme comprises Dassault Aviation, which in addition to being the design authority, takes care of the general design and architecture of the system, the flight control system, the implementation of low observable devices, the final assembly, the systems integration on the “global integration tests rig”, the ground tests, and the flight tests.

Alenia Aermacchi (Italy) contributes to the project with a new concept of internal weapon bay (“Smart Integrated Weapon Bay” - SIWB), an internal EO/IR sensor, the bay doors and their operating mechanisms, the electrical power and distribution system, and the air data system.

SAAB (Sweden), is entrusted with the general design of the main fuselage, the landing gear doors, the avionics and the fuel system. EADS-CASA (Spain) brings its experience for the wings, the ground station, and the data link integration.

Hellenic Aerospace Industry - HAI (Greece) is responsible for the rear fuselage, the exhaust pipe, and the supply of racks of the “global integration tests rig”. RUAG (Switzerland) is taking care of the low speed wind tunnel tests, and the weapon interfaces between the aircraft and the armaments.

Tricycle-type landing gear

The air vehicle fuselage length and the wingspan are approximately 10m. The empty weight of the air vehicle is around 4,500kg and with a full payload the weight will be about 6,000kg. The air vehicle has tricycle-type landing gear for runway take-off and landing.

nEUROn will have the capability to carry two laser guided 250kg (550lb) bombs in two weapon bays. The air vehicle is expected to have an endurance of several hours and high subsonic speed i.e. a maximum speed of Mach 0.7 to Mach 0.8.

The unmanned nEUROn is controlled from ground-based stations and from control stations in combat aircraft such as the French Rafale or the Swedish Gripen.

In 2005, Thales was selected to develop the datalink system for nEUROn. The system connects the ground control station with the UCAV by a high-rate Nato standard STANAG 7085 datalink and a low-rate datalink. The high-rate datalink allows secure transmission of application data (video, imagery and radar) and air vehicle command and control data. The low-rate datalink uses secure technologies and a different frequency band to ensure data integrity.

The air vehicle is powered by two Adour mk951 jet engines from the Rolls Royce and Turbomeca joint venture RRTM. The Adour mk951 is already fitted on BAE Systems Hawk 128 aircraft. The air intake is in a flush dorsal position above the nose.

The engine features a new fan and combustor and is also equipped with full authority digital engine control (FADEC) which reduces the workload of the pilot by performing automated operations.

European first

The nEUROn is the first large size stealth platform designed in Europe. Building on the experience gained from recent projects, for the first time in a military project, the nEUROn is designed and developed within the frame of a completely integrated “Product Lifecycle Management” (PLM) environment, through a “virtual plateau”.

This allows Dassault Aviation and its partners, located in the different countries, to simultaneously work together on the same design data base, independently from the location where the design activities are currently performed.

All the teams involved from the beginning of the programme know each other very well thanks to the development tasks jointly performed in the design office implemented inside the Dassault Aviation facilities of St-Cloud, as well as with the daily use of distant collaborative tools provided with the “virtual plateau”.

The very same teams worked together on the aircraft, or on the “global integration tests rig”. This specific and innovative organisation allowed a perfect tempo to be achieved in order to rapidly solve any technical events occurring during the development phase of the programme.

The nEUROn programme is a major opportunity for the European industry to develop its capabilities in the UAV field, keep and maintain its competences in order to be ready for the design of the next generation of European combat aircraft, and to experience a new programme management process, optimized through an innovative international cooperation scheme.

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