Eurodrone Lab opens at Manching
Eurodrone and OCCAR (Organisation Conjointe de Coopération en matière d’Armement / Organisation for Joint Armament Co-operation) together opened the brand new ‘Eurodrone Lab’ at Manching on 11 April. All flight and ground systems of the Eurodrone will be tested in the lab before they are installed and deployed in the actual aircraft and ground control stations. Hard- and software will be individually tested on computers, then connected and finally run together in an overall system integration test. This will lead to the granting of a flight clearance before the first flight of the Eurodrone which is planned to take place before the end of this decade.
Eurodrone will be Europe’s first large-scale, medium-altitude and long-endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) certified to fly in the highly frequented European airspace. With it, Germany, France, Italy and Spain will no longer have to rely on military drones from manufacturers outside Europe. They will give a sovereign capability to undertake a wide variety of missions – large-area surveillance, reconnaissance, target acquisition, signals intelligence, early warning, protection of critical infrastructure, and anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare. In all, Airbus will produce 20 systems at its final assembly line in Manching. These will consist of a total of 60 RPAS and 40 ground stations, since each system is made up of three aircraft and two ground stations. Entry into service is scheduled at the end of this decade.
