Additional information

Development

Inception

Following the launch of the Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (MALE RPAS) development programme in September 2016, the four nations of Italy, Germany, Spain and France, alongside the companies involved in the programme, agreed on the requirements of the developmental platform.

Flight Testing

The first full-scale model of the Eurodrone was unveiled on 26 April 2018 during a ceremony held at the 2018 ILA Berlin Air Show. As of 2024, a maiden flight is planned for 2027.

Coalition & Division of Labour

The Eurodrone project will create 7000+ European high-tech jobs and will have a 100% European industry value chain. Germany is the leading country in the project, and Airbus Germany is the industry prime. The company will contribute to the flight management and airspace integration system, GCS and the final assembly line. 

France's Dassault Aviation will develop safe flight and landing systems, mission communication, air central maintenance systems, and ground and mobile central maintenance systems. Airbus Spain will develop the fuselage, empennage design and production, ground safety-critical control system, safety and tactical communication and propulsion system. Italy's Leonardo will provide wing design and production, airborne electrical and environmental control systems, and airborne mission and armament systems. 

In April 2023, Airbus chose Liebherr-Aerospace Lindenberg GmbH to develop and manufacture the main and nose landing gear for the drone, including actuation, steering and electronic controls, and the electric motor-driven pump (EMP).

Technical Description

Configuration

With an open architecture, the Eurodrone is specifically designed to allow its operators to conduct various missions using the platform. In addition, the four partner nations agreed the UAV would have an ample supply of onboard energy for the payloads and, more importantly, a redundancy system to limit the restrictions that would be imposed on it while it operated over densely populated European cities. A Eurodrone system contains three UAV units. 

It is the first MALE designed from the start to meet requirements for integration into civil airspace, helping to improve efficiencies such as the use of direct flight paths without the need for pre-planned emergency landing sites, which saves time, fuel and, as a result, CO2 emissions.

Mobility & Propulsion

In March 2022, the competition to supply the UAV with its engine was won by GE-owned Avio Aero. The company will provide its Catalyst engine for the platform, with Jean-Brice Dumont, Head of Military Aircraft at Airbus Defence and Space, stating that the engine was the "best solution based on superior performance, lower developmental risk, better in-service economics" and "growth potential". 

Control & Communications

As mentioned above, Airbus Germany will develop the GCS and Dassault Aviation will develop the systems of mission communications. 

Payloads

- None Offensive -

The platform was designed for ISTAR missions and is set to be equipped with SAR, EO/IR and tactical SIGINT payloads. As mentioned above, the open architecture of the Eurodrone is intended to provide it with operational superiority in ISTAR missions compared to other platforms. 

On 29 November 2022, Safran Electronics & Defense confirmed it had signed a contract with Leonardo to supply the Euroflir 610 EO sensor, a payload derived from the Euroflir 410 architecture, for the Eurodrone system.  

Two months later, in January 2023, Germany announced that its Eurodrones would be fitted with a SIGNIT capability provided by Hensoldt. 

- Offensive -

The development roadmap of the Eurodrone made provisions for it to be weaponised sometime in the future. The German collation government explicitly ruled out arming the MALE RPAS in February 2021.

Despite this, in October 2022, the Direction générale de l'armement (DGA) confirmed that, following a study launched by OPEX and itself, the Heut de Trame (MHT) air-to-ground missiles would equip its Eurodrones in addition to the Tigre Mk3 and GPU-49 bombs. The DGA chose the MHT due to its multi-purpose warhead, reduced mass, range of over 15km and efficient guidance system.

Unit Cost

The total funding for the entire four-nation programme is a reported €7.1 billion ($8.56 billion) to procure 60 Eurodrone platforms. Using these figures, it can be calculated one unit will cost an estimated $143 million. 20% of this figure will be subtracted to account for any supporting costs. From this calculation, Shephard can estimate that Eurodrome's flyaway unit cost is $114.4 million.

Customers

Germany, France, Italy & Spain

A joint development project called the European MALE RPAS programme was launched in September 2016 by Germany, Italy, France, and Spain to procure 60 Eurodrone platforms. Germany is scheduled to purchase 21 platforms, Italy 15, Spain 12 and France 12. The programme's total cost is a reported €7.1 billion ($8.56 billion). 

On 20 November 2020, OCCAR announced the completion of the negotiation phase for the Stage Two Contract. Following this, a full production contract was expected to be signed in early 2021. After initial delays, the German Armed Forces announced on 24 March 2021 that the four nations were expected to sign a contract in mid-2021. On 14 April 2021, the Bundestag approved this full Stage Two contract, which opened the door further for the expected signatures of the four partner nations, OCCAR and the companies involved. 

In July 2021, the signing of the €7.1 billion ($8.56 billion) production contract was promised by an official to come by October 2021. However, the partners did not meet this date. During the annual Airbus trade media briefing, held virtually on 30 November 2021, it was suggested Spain was the only partner not to sign the production contract, causing the programme delay. A few months later, in January 2022, Michael Schoellhorn, Airbus Defence and Space CEO, confirmed on Twitter that the Spanish Council of Ministers had approved the programme, paving the way for the programme to advance, with the partners due to sign a global contract. 

A production contract was one step closer on 3 February 2022, when the lead nation, Germany, signed the second implementation agreement (IA2) to continue developing the MALE UAS with the Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation (OCCAR).

Following Germany's actions, on 24 February 2022, Airbus announced it and OCCAR had signed an Eurdrone contract for developing and manufacturing 20 systems, 60 units, and five years of initial in-service support, with Germany receiving seven systems, Italy five, France and Spain four each. As stated by the CEO of Airbus Defence and Space, Mike Schoellhorn, "This signature kicks off the development of one of the most ambitious European defence programmes."

In May 2024, OCCAR, in collaboration with the member nations, completed its Preliminary Design Review (PDR), confirming that the design had matured enough to proceed to the detailed design phase and the eventual Critical Design Review (CDR), the last major stage before production.

Czech Republic

Although not one of the four initial members that shaped the development of the Eurodrone MALE UAV, a Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) document released in November 2018 listed Czechia as one of the countries involved in the MALE PRAS programme, alongside Germany, Spain, France and Italy. Consequently, Shephard pessimistically forecasts that the Republic acquire the drone through a procurement programme.

German Navy

The Bundeswehr released the Zielplan Marine 2035+ plan in March 2023, detailing how the German Navy must prepare for future conflicts. The plan highlighted the need for uncrewed systems, one of which was a land-based drone for sea reconnaissance. Shephard believes either the Eurodrone or General Atomics's MQ-9B SeaGuardian could be acquired.

India

In October 2024, it was announced that Germany had accepted India's application to join the Eurodrone programme as an observer. This agreement will allow India to monitor the programme, which, in turn, should allow the nation to incorporate the lessons into its domestic projects. More speculatively, the agreement could better inform a potential Indian procurement of the Eurodrone UAV in the future.