The EuroMALE Unmanned Aircraft System represents the latest attempt by European defense players - namely Airbus, Dassault, and Leonardo - to provide military- and security-minded services with a UAV of local design.
The EuroMALE represents the latest joint-European initiative centered on providing its various armed services with a locally designed, developed, and built Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). The venture is being headed by major defense players Airbus and Dassault of France and Leonardo of Italy (with involvement from both Germany and Spain). To this point, the defense powers of the mainland Europe have had to rely on a collection of UAVSs of foreign origination - mainly from the United States and Israel; namely the Predator and Heron UAVs, respectively.
On April 26th, 2018, a full-scale mockup of the EuroMALE was revealed to onlookers attending ILA Berlin. The showcased specimen - not a finalized design form - has the usual bulbous frontal section containing the avionics fit. The fuselage is slender with nearly slab sides while the tail unit is capped by a single vertical fin with high-mounted horizontal planes (in the traditional "T-Style" or "Multhopp Tail" arrangement). The wing mainplanes are slim and fitted at, or near, midships while being low-mounted along the fuselage sides. Between the mainplanes position and the tail unit are outboard-held turboprop engine nacelles driving conventional propeller units in "pusher" fashion - this most likely a design quality accepted to better meet European civilian airspace regulations. Each engine drives a six-bladed propeller. The undercarriage is of a tricycle arrangement and appears fully-retractable into the design - a nose leg and two main legs are in play.
Beyond its general appearance, little in terms of performance for the EuroMALE is known. Since its powerplant scheme will revolve around conventional propeller-based systems, long loitering times are expected with a modest maximum speed. The system will most likely support the same sortie types that the Intelligence-Surveillance-Reconnaissance-minded General Atomics "Predator" line does - though perhaps without the land-attack capability of the related "Reaper".
A finalized design form of the EuroMALE is scheduled to be completed before the start of 2019 while it is hoped that the production-quality version can meet an in-operation date scheduled for sometime in 2025 or thereabouts.
Performance and structural specifications on this page are estimates.
September 2019 - Safran of France has been tapped with providing the powerplant to the new EuroMALE UAV. The development consortium will include ZF Luftfahrttechnik (ZFL) and MT-Propeller.
November 2019 - Airbus expects to begin deliveries of its EuroMALE to customers sometime in 2027.
June 2020 - German officials unveiled plans to arm their future version of the EuroMALE with Brimstone air-to-surface missiles and Paveway precision-guided drop bombs.
March 2022 - The Eurodrone program has been formally launched and currently includes France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
France (probable); Germany; (probable); Italy (possible); Spain (possible)
(OPERATORS list includes past, present, and future operators when applicable)
✓Ground Attack (Bombing, Strafing)
Ability to conduct aerial bombing of ground targets by way of (but not limited to) guns, bombs, missiles, rockets, and the like.
✓Intelligence-Surveillance-Reconnaissance (ISR), Scout
Surveil ground targets / target areas to assess environmental threat levels, enemy strength, or enemy movement.
✓X-Plane (Developmental, Prototype, Technology Demonstrator)
Aircraft developed for the role of prototyping, technology demonstration, or research / data collection.
✓Unmanned Capability
Aircraft inherently designed (or later developed) with an unmanned capability to cover a variety of over-battlefield roles.
Length
32.8 ft (10.00 m)
Width/Span
49.2 ft (15.00 m)
Height
8.2 ft (2.50 m)
Empty Wgt
1,213 lb (550 kg)
MTOW
2,425 lb (1,100 kg)
Wgt Diff
+1,213 lb (+550 kg)
(Showcased structural values pertain to the Airbus-Dassault-Leonardo EuroMALE production variant)
monoplane / low-mounted / straight
Monoplane
Design utilizes a single primary wing mainplane; this represent the most popular mainplane arrangement.
Low-Mounted
Mainplanes are low-mounted along the sides of the fuselage.
Straight
The planform involves use of basic, straight mainplane members.
(Structural descriptors pertain to the Airbus-Dassault-Leonardo EuroMALE production variant)
Installed:
2 x Conventional engines driving six-bladed propeller units in pusher arrangement (rear-facing).
Mission equipment centered on various optics and sensor fits for the Intelligence-Surveillance-Reconnaissance (ISR) role.
Future versions may support air-to-surface missiles as well as precision-guided / laser-guided bombs.
Supported Types
(Not all ordnance types may be represented in the showcase above)
Hardpoint Mountings: 4
Mounting Points
-
-
-
7
5
-
-
-
4
6
-
-
-
HARDPOINT(S) KEY:
X
15
13
11
9
7
5
3
1
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
COLOR KEY:
Fuselage Centerline
Fuselage Port/Wingroot
Fuselage Starboard/Wingroot
Wing/Underwing
Wingtip Mount(s)
Internal Bay(s)
Not Used
Note: Diagram above does not take into account inline hardpoints (mounting positions seated one-behind-the-other).
EuroMALE - Base Project Name.
Eurodrone - Alternative project name.
Ribbon graphics not necessarily indicative of actual historical campaign ribbons. Ribbons are clickable to their respective aerial campaigns / operations / aviation periods.
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France (probable); Germany; (probable); Italy (possible); Spain (possible)
