France wants to leave the European project to create a massive reconnaissance-strike Eurodrone UAV. In recent days, numerous media outlets reported that the French are increasingly disinterested in this program, with negotiations already underway regarding the country's withdrawal from the project.
The reasons for such a decision are quite banal: the program is advancing with significant delays, becoming too expensive, and such an unmanned system no longer meets modern battlefield needs.
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This decision has actually been maturing for a long time. This is not the first time information about plans to leave the project has publicly surfaced. French media wrote about this back in October last year, while at the beginning of the year it became known that France would redirect funds from the European Eurodrone to its own Aarok UAV. This may also be part of the complex of reasons why France lost interest in Eurodrone.
The project is indeed progressing slowly and with difficulty. Although the Eurodrone project started back in 2015, with the drone itself first publicly shown three years later in 2018, it took participants a full 10 years of development to complete the critical design review of this massive UAV.Its first flight was initially scheduled for 2024, then postponed three years later to 2027.
Next, three prototypes are planned to be created. Four years ago, a contract was signed for production of 20 complexes with 60 Eurodrone UAVs as well as 40 control stations. Of these, France was to receive 4 complexes with 12 drones, meaning three in each.
Whether such a large UAV is actually needed today is also quite a relevant question. In modern conditions, the 13-ton Eurodrone as a weapons carrier would be a very easy target for air defense systems. Today, the strike drone niche is beginning to be filled by so-called loyal wingmen, which must be lighter, faster, and more maneuverable.
On the other hand, Eurodrone with the ability to remain airborne for nearly two days could be an interesting asset for patrolling or long-range radar detection tasks. However, again, everything comes down to how long they will struggle with its development and how relevant it will actually be after 2030, as this is approximately when its operational deployment will begin at current rates.
Interestingly, three of the four countries participating in Eurodrone have unfortunate experience cooperating on another aircraft creation project, namely the notorious FCAS, which collapsed in recent months. This involves Germany, France, Spain, as well as Italy's participation in Eurodrone.
Moreover, interestingly, back in 2019 France already expressed its dissatisfaction with this project, specifically with Germany's technical conditions. This was mentioned in one French Senate report, which called the drone too heavy and accordingly too difficult to export.
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