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Dassault nEUROn UCAV at Paris Air Show / Le Bourget 2011 |
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| Friday,
June 24, 2011, 03:40 PM |
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| Dassault
nEUROn UCAV Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle demonstrator at
Paris Air Show 2011. |
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At
Paris Air Show 2011, Dassault Aviation, presents its new
project of UCAV Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle, the nEUROn.
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.
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Dassault
nEUROn UCAV Unmanned Combat air Vehicle at Paris Air Show
2011
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This
project goes far beyond the theoretical studies that have
been conducted until now, as it plans the building and
the flight demonstration of an unmanned aircraft.
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 to manage the nEUROn programme.
The Italian, Swedish, Spanish, Greek and Swiss governments
acting together with their related industrial teams, Alenia,
SAAB, EADS-CASA, Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI) and
RUAG, have joined the French initiative.
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Artistic drawing of nEUROn (European UCAV technology demonstrator) |
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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 design
phase of the nEUROn are:
- the shapes of the air vehicle (aerodynamic, innovative
composite structure, and internal weapon bay),
- the technologies related to low observability issues,
- the insertion of this type of aircraft within the test
area,
- the high-level algorithms necessary to the development
of the automated processes,
- as well as the place of the human factor within the mission
loop.
The last, but certainly not the least, important technology
to 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. |
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nEUROn final assembly in Istres by Dassault Aviation team.
nEUROn is a European UCAV technology demonstrator. |
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The
industrial team of the nEUROn programme is composed of:
- Dassault Aviation (France), 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 (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. |
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