The European Eurodrone MALE RPAS (Medium Altitude Long Endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft System) has successfully passed its Integrated Baseline Review (IBR). The current review demonstrates that all activities, resources, supplies and services are planned and available for the achievement of the next scheduled key milestones. The resulting documentation is the basis for the mutual understanding of the development process between OCCAR, the prime contractor (Airbus Defense and Space) and the Participating States Germany, France, Italy and Spain. The IBR is an enabler of the successful completion of the upcoming design review: Requirement Allocation Review (2022), Preliminary Design Review (2023) and Critical Design Review (2024).
The Eurodrone is a result of cooperation between Germany, France, Italy and Spain, it will feature an open architecture design to allow for growth and rescoping system capabilities as may be required by the future needs of customer armed forces. This open architecture will allow Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and other countries as well, to integrate desired weapons and payloads on the RPAS. France will be integrating the MHT/MLP air-to-air missile on the Eurodrone medium altitude long endurance remotely piloted aircraft system (MALE RPAS), the country’s armaments agency DGA has announced. The French Direction générale de l’armement (DGA) procurement agency made the announcement on 6 October, saying that the Missile Haut de Trame (MHT), as the Akeron LP was previously known in France, will complement the GBU-49 precision-guided bombs as the Eurodrone’s weapons package.
The Akeron MP (Akeron Moyenne Portée), formerly known as MMP (Missile Moyenne Portée; English: Medium-Range Missile), is a French fifth generation, network-enabled, anti-tank guided missile system. Featuring both fire-and-forget and command guidance operating modes, it also integrates third party target designation for indirect firing scenarios through its lock-on after launch capability for non-line-of-sight (NLOS) use. A long-range, air-launched missile of the same family, the Akeron LP (Akeron Longue Portée), is also in development. It is intended to equip the upcoming French Eurocopter Tiger MkIII. The Akeron LP is a ‘fire-and-forget’ missile that can be employed against a range of fixed or mobile land targets, including hardened or defensive fighting positions, tanks, and/or dismounted infantry.
The Akeron LP features low collateral multi-effect warheads (anti-tank, anti-infrastructure, anti-personnel), datalinks, and multimode guidance algorithThis airborne naval and land combat missile system is the unique polyvalent munition for optimising the trajectory (Flat, Lofted, Highly Diving) in accordance with the type of target, the weather conditions and the operational environment (cluttered environment, friendly air assets in the zone. Whatever the combat situation, always the right firing mode, missile trajectory and lethal effect are selectable by the gunner. High hit and kill probabilities in all configurations against static and fast moving targets. Beyond Line-of-Sight firing capability in networked operations and for cooperative engagement with third party.
