Neuron Fuselage
Saab Aerospace handed over the fuselage section of the pan-European Neuron unmanned combat air vehicle technology demonstrator during a ceremony at its Linköping site in Sweden on 25 January. The structure will be shipped by road to the Istres air base in the south of France, where Dassault, the aircraft’s lead integrator, will attach the wings and prepare it for ground and flight tests to start early next year.
The Neuron project was launched in 2003 with a budget of €400 million ($548 million) with the aim to develop the technologies that could outfit future generations of stealth UCAVs developed in Europe – France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland are taking part. The partners are:
- Saab: Fuselage
- Cassidian, Spain: wings, ground control station and data-link integration
- Dassault: wing leading and trailing edges and flight-control system
- Hellenic Aerospace Industry: rear fuselage and tail pipe
- Alenia Aeronautica: electrical system and weapons bay
- Ruag: pantograph to lower ordnance from weapons bay
The aircraft uses a Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour turbofan engine in the centre fuselage behind an S-shaped air intake. Designed with stealth characteristics, the Neuron uses a composite skin built over an aluminium frame.
Assembly of the aircraft will take place over the next nine months. Flight-testing should begin at Istres in 2012 and will also be conducted in Italy and Sweden. Saab hopes to use its Giraffe three-dimensional air defence radar to evaluate the low observable characteristics of the Neuron airframe, but a final decision will be taken by Sweden’s Defence Materiel Administration.
In a separate statement, Saab announced that it expects to deliver two tactical unmanned air vehicle systems to the Swedish army this year. Each will comprise four AAI-produced Shadow 200 aircraft, plus a ground control system and a sensor source intelligence cell.
The company says it is also demonstrating its Skeldar unmanned helicopter to undisclosed potential customers in Sweden. The type could enter series production by 2012.