Dassault Neuron

From Free net encyclopedia

The Dassault Neuron - sometimes written as nEUROn - is a French delta attack UCAV unmanned attack aircraft demonstrator currently under development by Dassault Aviation in collaboration with Swedish SAAB (claim 25% of development), Greece Hellenic_Aerospace_Industry, Italy (ALENIA), Spain (EADS-CASA) and Switzerland (RUAG). A single demonstration system is being produced to explore new operational concepts.

The program has three stated goals:

The first is to maintain and develop the skills of the participating European aerospace companies' design offices, which will not see any other new fighter programs before 2030 now that the Rafale, Eurofighter, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and JAS-39 Gripen projects are all complete or well underway.
The second goal is to investigate and validate the technologies that will be needed by 2015 to design next-generation combat aircraft.
The final aim is to validate an innovative cooperation process by establishing a European industry team responsible for developing next-generation combat aircraft.

1 The Neuron Platform
2 Project History & Developments
3 External links
4 Related Releases
5 Related content

[edit]

The Neuron Platform

As a UCAV (Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle) Neuron will be significantly larger and more advanced than other well-known UAV systems like the RQ-1 Predator, with ranges, payloads and capabilities that begin to approach manned fighter aircraft. Although the project is not yet closely defined, illustrations and statements by the consortium partners indicate that the Neuron is envisoned as a competitive system with the American J-UCAS program's Boeing X-45C or Northrop-Grumman X-47B.

Indeed, Saab's February 9, 2006 release notes that Neuron will be a demonstrator measuring 10m long by 12m wide and weighing in at 5 tons. This is roughly the size of a Mirage 2000 fighter. The aircraft will have unmanned autonomous air-to-ground attack capabilities with precision guided munitions, relying on an advanced stealth airframe design to penetrate undetected. Another feature being contemplated is the ability to control squad flight in automatic mode from an advanced fighter like the Rafale or JAS-39 Gripen platform, grouping the Neurons and controlling the group in a manner familiar to many RTS computer games.

[edit]

Project History & Developments

During the 2003 Paris Air Show, French Minister of Defence Mme Michèle Alliot-Marie announced a major agreement signed between EADS, Dassault Aviation and Thales. the agreement covered a joint-venture to "realize a new unmanned military technology that covers all future activity in combat and strategic reconnaissance aeronautics."

EADS leads a HALE (High Altitude, Long Endurance) UAV project.

Meanwhile, the French defence procurement agency, DGA, acting as the program executive on behalf of the participating countries, has entrusted development of the first Neuron UCAV demonstrator to Dassault Aviation and its European partners. Sub-contracts have been made with other European industrial firms, including SAAB (Sweden) in particular, HAI (Greece), Alenia (Italy), RUAG Aerospace (Switzerland) and CASA (Spain).

Chief project manager Thierry Prunier comes from Dassault Aviation, and the deputy project managers are Mats Ohlson of Saab and Ermanno Bertolina of Alenia. There is just one link between the executive agency (DGA) and the prime contractor (Dassault), and it will be up to the executive agency to coordinate with the government agencies of the participating countries. It will be up to the prime contractor, meanwhile, to coordinate the work with the other industries.

Work breakdown among those industries is as follows:

Dassault Aviation (France): Prime contractor; general design authority; flight controls; final assembly; static and flight testing;

Saab (Sweden): overall design; fuselage; avionics; fuel system; autonomy functions, some flight testing and verification; low signature adaptation of the exhaust pipe; and landing gear doors. Saab is also the coordinator for all the Swedish corporations involved.

EADS CASA (Spain): wing; ground control station; data-link integration;

Alenia Aeronautica (Italy): weapon firing system; air data system; electrical system; flight testing;

RUAG Aerospace (Switzerland): wind tunnel tests; weapons carriage;

Thales (France): data-link; command and control interface;

HAI (Greece): rear fuselage; tail pipe; systems integration bench.

The contract is valued at 405 million euros, and allows industry to begin a three-year system definition and design phase with related low-observability studies. This phase will be followed by the development and assembly phase, and by a first flight in 2011. It is planned that the 2-year flight-test program (2011-2013) will entail about 100 sorties, including the launch of a laser-guided bomb tentatively scheduled for 2012.

According to prime contractor Dassault Aviation, the French government will provide half of the program's EUR 400 million ($480 million) budget, while the remaining funds will be supplied by the other participating member nations. More precise reports place France's share of the development funding at about 185 million euros, while Sweden's defense ministry announced in December 2005 that its share would be 75 million euros, of which 66 million would be financed by Saab AB. The cost of Spain's participation to the program is estimated at 35.5 million euros, spread over the 2007-2012 period.

[edit]