By Theo Leggett
Business reporter, BBC News, Paris Air Show
Continue reading the main story
Click right to see the nEUROn without its domed cover
Under
a huge semi-opaque dome and with heavy security in attendance, visitors
to the Paris Air
Show peer at a strange looking shape.
Drones
- Aircraft without pilots are known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), or drones
- In military situations, drones are used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance
- They are piloted by crew at base
- Typical uses include checking for roadside bombs and attacking suspected insurgents
- They are also used by companies and individuals
- They are used in the oil industry, for example, to inspect drilling platforms and refineries
The matt black, almost
featureless triangular aircraft is making its first public appearance,
and the makers don't want people seeing too much of its advanced
features.
But this object - the rather awkwardly-named nEUROn - could be the future of combat aircraft.
When a jet like the Rafale or the Sukhoi SU-35 shrieks
overhead at the show, the watching crowds are left in awe at the skill
and daring of the pilot.
Ever since the World War I, when aces like the Red Baron
Manfred von Richthofen patrolled the skies, the fighter pilot has held a
special place in the imagination.
But that status could now be under threat, because the next
generation of combat aircraft may dispense with the pilot altogether.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or drones, are nothing new, as their controversial use in Afghanistan and Pakistan has shown.
But drones have limitations, and are vulnerable to being shot
down within seconds of going anywhere near properly defended airspace.
Enter the combat drone
“Start Quote
In some regions you have very dangerous missions, and the use of unmanned vehicles could be very useful”
Eric Trappier
Chief executive, Dassault Aviation
One solution is to develop much larger machines, full-scale fighter aircraft capable of flying long distances at high speed.
They would be capable of bombing missions or tactical
strikes, and able to defend themselves. And all without the need for a
pilot.
A number of experimental "superdrones" have already been
built. Among them are Northrop Grumman's X-47 and the BAE Systems'
Taranis.
And then there's the spooky-looking nEUROn, being developed by a European consortium.
France's Dassault is the lead contractor in the six-nation
consortium, with the other participants being defence companies from
Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
The nEUROn, which made its first flight at the tail end of last year, is an ugly beast, low slung and black.
Its rather bat-like appearance clearly owes a great deal to the
Lockheed Martin F117 Nighthawk, better known as the original Stealth
Fighter, and indeed it has been built using stealth technologies.
"It's a big one!" says Eric Trappier, chief executive of
French firm Dassault Aviation. "It's the size of a fighter, with a bomb
bay."
The aircraft has already done radar tests to assess its
stealth capabilities, but a fully operational aircraft is unlikely to be
ready until the end of the decade.
The use of unmanned aircraft in military situations has been controversial
Mr Trappier believes there is a clear role for unmanned
aircraft to play in future conflicts, with fleets of pilotless planes
being directed to targets by controllers on the ground, or from manned
aircraft flying behind them.
"In some regions you have very dangerous missions, and the
use of unmanned vehicles could be very useful. For example, the
destruction of enemy countermeasures or missiles or whatever.
"It's mainly for the first day of war, where you don't really
know what's going on in front of you, the UCAV (unmanned combat aerial
vehicle) could be a good answer."
So could unmanned planes one day do the job better than a fighter piloted by an individual rather than a computer?
"Yes, in some types of mission it could be better. In some
others, where you really need to have the pilot in the loop, well I
think the manned vehicle will remain. So it's a kind of compromise
between the unmanned vehicles and the manned fighters."
Serious mistakes
But manufacturers wont be able to develop them without opposition.
The use of existing drones has
faced widespread criticism, largely because of the way in which they
have been employed by the CIA in particular, outside the boundaries of
conventional conflict.
But there have also been concerns that the operators of
drones are too far removed from the battlefield to comprehend the
seriousness of what they do and that mistakes can be made.
But according to Mr Trappier, the issue is not whether or not drones should be used, but how they should be operated.
"It's a matter of who is in charge, who is in command. You
need to know what you are doing on the mission. Whether a human is in
the aircraft or not, he has to be in the loop."
He says much of the criticism in the US is not about the use
of drones, but about who is in charge: the CIA, the Pentagon, or the
armed forces.
"You need to continue to operate UAVs as though you were operating a manned vehicle," he says.
That's fine in theory, but would it be the case in practice?
Given the amount of development money being poured into this
industry, one suspects that in a few years time we will eventually find
out.
