The nEUROn program was launched in 2003.
The main contract was awarded to the prime contractor in 2006, and the industrial partnership contracts were signed at the same time.
The first flight of the technology demonstrator took place in Istres on December 1, 2012.
The 100th flight took place on February 26, 2015.
The firing of a weapon from the internal payload bay took place on September 2, 2015.
After its first flights (December 2012), the nEUROn was transported to the DGA research center in Bruz, near Rennes, for stealth performance evaluation. This measurement campaign, in an anechoic chamber, lasted until May 2013. The results were described as excellent.
The nEUROn was then exhibited for the first time at the Paris Air Show, in June 2013, where it met with great success.
In summer 2013, the nEUROn returned to Istres for the French test campaign. In the first phase, the aim of the tests was to open up the aircraft’s flight envelope (including open payload bay), test the electro-optical sensor and evaluate the performance of the data link.
In a second phase, most of the flights were dedicated to signature/detection tests in the infrared and electromagnetic domains, against operational systems.
The nEUROn was then transferred to Italy (spring 2015), then to Sweden (summer 2015), to be tested against the operational systems of these two major program partners. A successful test firing of a 250 kg bomb was carried out in Sweden on September 2, 2015.
During all these test campaigns, the nEUROn was operated by Dassault Aviation teams. The aircraft and associated resources demonstrated exemplary availability and reliability.
From 2016 to 2018, the DGA organized three new national flight test campaigns for the nEUROn at Istres to study the use of a combat drone in a naval context and carry out new confrontations against operational or experimental systems. Tests with the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier were carried out in July 2016 and January 2019.
The 2017 and 2018 campaigns were also an opportunity to carry out confrontations with an operational system from our Spanish partner.
In late 2016 and early 2017, a new campaign of electromagnetic signature measurements was carried out at the DGA center in Bruz to assess stealth performance after more than 130 flights. The results were again described as excellent.
Since 2019, the nEUROn has been carrying out test flights at the Istres base on behalf of the DGA and the French Air Force, to investigate operational use scenarios and threat confrontation campaigns. Maintainability and results once again met all expectations. The nEUROn has now completed more than 170 flights.
The technological demonstrations carried out as part of the nEUROn program will benefit the development of the stealth combat drone announced in October 2024, which will complement the Rafale’s future F5 standard (post-2030).