The four-nation Eurodrone programme is nearing its critical design review (CDR) activity, as discussions continue around the potential for additional roles – and fresh partners – to come aboard.
“After observing a delay of more than a year for the time of the critical design review, which is just about to come, there are discussions with the nations on how do we work with these delays and how do we shape the programme moving forward,” says Jean-Brice Dumont, head of air power at prime contractor Airbus Defence & Space.
The programme – to develop a medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) remotely piloted air system for partners France, Germany, Italy and Spain – is behind schedule due to factors including an earlier slip to the completion of its preliminary design review, which was achieved in May 2024.
“What we are looking at at the moment on Eurodrone is more customers, more missions,” Dumont said at the Paris air show on 17 June. “There are lots of questions, and we need to see what kind of missions we could think of, notably in the maritime environment, and which countries are interested.”
Managed by Europe’s OCCAR defence procurement body, the programme sees Airbus’s defence unit working with industrial partners including Airbus Defence & Space Spain, Dassault Aviation and Leonardo.
India and Japan are already interested in the Eurodrone project, having respectively signed up as observers in August 2024 and November 2023.
OCCAR early this month hosted a two-day visit by Indian officials including personnel from the nation’s Defence Research and Development Organisation to its Hallbergmoos site near Munich, and subsequently reported “strong interest in the capability”.
“Potential for customisation with local technologies was also confirmed as compatible with the product’s modular architecture and growth potential,” OCCAR says.
“There are other countries knocking at the door and willing to take an observer role – or some of them even in jumping to a contributing role, which is a fundamental turning point for the programme,” Dumont says.
“We will have to decide what this programme is in terms of contributors and missions until the end of the development,” he adds.
Following the completion of the CDR, the programme will enter its Phase 1B, leading to the first flight of a prototype – an event expected during 2027, according to earlier schedule information.
Despite the protracted nature of the Eurodrone’s pre-production activity, Dumont states: “We are still targeting the entry into service at the end of the decade.”
The four programme partners have committed to fielding a combined total of 20 operational systems, with each to feature three air vehicles and two ground control stations.
Powered by a pair of Avio Aero/GE Aerospace Catalyst engines, the MALE type will be capable of performing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tasks, including in an armed configuration.
