The nEUROn stealth drone, France's option for Spain to buy the Rafale F5 fighter

This week we have learned some statements from the Chief of Staff of the Spanish Air Force about the F-35 and its alternatives.

The Spanish Air Force, the F-35 and the characteristics of three possible alternatives
The four candidates of the Spanish Air Force to replace its old F-5M

Last Tuesday you were able to read here an article on that issue, reviewing the three alternatives that Spain could consider to avoid buying the F-35. One of those alternatives would be the Dassault Rafale, the French competitor of the Eurofighter. In that article I mentioned that the Rafale does not have stealth capabilities like the F-35 and, if it were to buy the French fighter, Spain would be betting on a model that has been in service for more than 20 years.

However, in recent days several French media specialising in defence issues have addressed this issue. Of the articles I have read, the most striking is the one written by Laurent Lagneau in Zone Militaire, in which he states the following: "the purchase of the Rafale F5 would undoubtedly be the most coherent insofar as, in addition to its involvement in the FCAS, Spain participated in the development of the nEUROn combat drone demonstrator. In addition, Madrid and Paris signed a agreement aimed at strengthening their military cooperation, particularly in the arms industry."

About the Rafale F5 and Spain's experience with French fighters, Avions Legendaires points out: "the Rafale F5 has something in its favor that its potential competitors do not have: the heritage of Dassault Aviation. Because in the past, Spain flew with Dassault Mirage IIIEE and then with Mirage F1CE/EE. These two fighter aircraft models have left a very beautiful mark on the history of Spanish aeronautics."

In these lines we can find the key to a possible purchase of the Rafale F5 by Spain: the nEUROn, an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) that made its first flight on December 1, 2012. This experimental project sought to create a stealthy drone, that is, with a very reduced radar signature, like the F-35, but without a pilot.

The first nEUROn mock-up was unveiled at the Paris Air Show in 2005. Spain joined the project in 2006 through EADS CASA. Other countries collaborating on nEUROn include Greece, Italy, Switzerland and Sweden. The project is led by French company Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of the Rafale. So far, nEUROn has made more than 170 test flights.

The Spanish contribution to this project is important: EADS CASA is responsible for the wing, ground control and data link segments in this project. The nEUROn would be a flying wing type aircraft, that is, without vertical planes (like the B-2 Spirit bomber) and with a delta wing. In November 2017, two Spanish Eurofighters from Wing 11 evaluated the low radar signature of the nEUROn, in a test carried out from the French air base of Istres.

On October 8, 2024, Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of Defense of France, announced the launch of the development of a UCAV to complement the Rafale F5, which will be the standard version of this fighter in the French Air Force from 2030. About this project, Dassault Aviation stated: "It will benefit from the achievements of the nEUROn programme, Europe's first stealth UCAV demonstrator."

On October 11, the Spanish website Infodefensa warned that the Rafale F5 and its UCAV endanger the FCAS, the sixth-generation fighter project on which Germany, Spain and France are collaborating, an aircraft that could enter service, at the earliest, in 2040. In his article in Infodefensa, Ginés Soriano warned that with the Rafale F5 and the successor to the nEUROn, France would have capabilities similar to those of the FCAS but ten years earlier and at a lower cost.

The possibility that France decides to go for the Rafale F5 and abandon the FCAS could be motivated by Germany's reluctance to use this sixth-generation fighter and by the difficult negotiations between the Germans and the French over the project.

With the Rafale F5, France has the option of offering Spain an advanced fighter that is compatible with a UCAV whose development has had Spanish participation. In addition, this aircraft would allow Spain to avoid the technological leap of going from a fourth-generation fighter like the EF-18 to a sixth-generation fighter like the FCAS. At the same time, the successor to the nEUROn would allow Spain to have a stealth aircraft without buying the F-35, although it would leave it outside the already large club of NATO countries that have a manned stealth fighter.

Obviously, at this point, many of us will be asking the same question: what about the replacement of the Spanish Harrier II? The only thing I can think of is that an option arises that few have contemplated until now but that Turkey has already tested on a sister ship of the Spanish aircraft carrier: operating drones from the flight deck and that the Navy ends up buying the nEUROn or its successor. The problem, of course, is that the nEUROn can operate from an aircraft carrier like the Spanish one. By adopting this option, the Spanish Navy would take a very different course than its counterparts in the US, Italy and the United Kingdom, which do operate the F-35.

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Photos: Dassault Aviation / Ejército del Aire / Armée de l'Air.