The Eurodrone UAV has successfully passed through its Preliminary Design Review milestone.
Eurodrone is a medium altitude long-endurance remotely piloted aircraft system being developed by France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Development of Eurodrone began in 2022 and it will be used in Intelligence, Surveillance Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) missions or homeland security operations.
Airbus Defence and Space is the prime contractor for Eurodrone with Airbus Defence and Space Spain, Dassault Aviation and Leonardo as three main major sub-contractors.
A Preliminary Design Review (PDR) proves that the initial design of an aircraft is mature enough to proceed with the detailed design.
Airbus said that several technical assessments have been conducted so far for Eurodrone, including wind tunnel testing to confirm its aerodynamic configuration, an evaluation of the overall design to ensure operational capability and validation of a fully representative Digital Twin.
The Eurodrone program’s next milestone will be a Critical Design Review which freezes the architecture and system design.
Jean-Brice Dumont, head of air power at Airbus Defence and Space said, “Performing the Preliminary Design Review for the development of Eurodrone represents an important step forward for this key European defence program.
“It shows a real joint effort and collaborative spirit from all industrial partners and the customer community to ensure European sovereignty and independence in this critical segment of unmanned long endurance ISTAR capability.”
According to Airbus, entry-into-service for Eurodrone is planned for before 2030.
