4th test campaign of French nEUROn combat drone demonstrator.

The nEUROn combat drone demonstrator began its fourth "Low Observability" test campaign in November 2018. This campaign was conducted by the Directorate-General of Armament (DGA) with the support of Dassault Aviation. The demonstration was carried out at Istres by DGA’s Flight Test teams, and consisted of a series of confrontations facing different operational means of detection. The demonstration will continue in early 2019.

Flight test of the nEUROn combat drone (Picture source: Dassault Aviation)

The fourth "Low Observability" campaign aims to continue the implementation study of nEUROn aircraft and to confront its stealth with aircraft-based sensors, ground-based radars and other surface threats. The "Low Observability" campaigns allow the DGA to evaluate the current development on the means of detection. They also allow armed forces to assess their ability to detect a stealth drone representative of future threats.

Last December 17, the Istres site of the DGA In Flight Trials hosted a detachment of aircraft from the Spanish Air Force's experimental center (CLAEX), to confront the stealth drone against two Eurofighter Typhoons. This activity, under DGA responsibility, was successfully carried out thanks to the excellent cooperation between the various stakeholders: Dassault Aviation, the Spanish Air Force and the DGA.

For the rest of this test campaign, the DGA will conduct further flights of the nEUROn technology demonstrator, a benchmark stealth combat drone resulting from European cooperation, to deepen employment studies and related technological innovations. This campaign, which illustrates the importance of maintaining high-quality international cooperation for tomorrow’s aerospace knowhow, also underlined the reliability of the nEUROn, which has completed its 150th test flight.