O.K.! First answers relative to the nEUROn program :
No, Loke, SAAB is contributing to the general cell, fuselage,
avionics and fuel system.
Dassault has Thales listed as taking care of datalink and command link.
As the different sizes which puzzled Swerve, there is a present day demonstrator of smaller size flying that has recently crept up the net
on a video. This is more or less the aeromodel version of the real thing
which is scheduled to take off in a year and a half ( 2012 ).
It is also clearly specified that the equipment used for this program,
to the extent of the engine for instance, is to be standard actual stuff.
There is an engine designed for the nEUROn’s possible successor weapons
program in French specs and that would be the M-88.
As for the Rafale-nEUROn combo option, here is the inceptive comment, AFAIK:
Quant à l’objection de l’UEO de 2004 selon laquelle “le défi majeur consiste à transformer ces robots en êtres autonomes et dotés d’une intelligence artificielle.”[14], dès février 2003, Laurent Chassaing, chef du service analyse des systèmes militaires chez Dassault, estimait que l’UCAV n’a pas vocation à se substituer à l’avion de combat habité, qu’il n’est donc pas nécessaire de lui en faire acquérir toutes les capacités et, surtout, ne pas chercher à le rendre intelligent et créatif. [15] Encore très récemment, Dassault ne cachait pas qu’il verrait bien un nEUROn (ou son successeur) être télépiloté à partir d’un Rafale biplace, une initiative à laquelle Saab n’est toujours pas acquise.
[As for the UEO 2004 quote that “the main challenge is to transform these
robots into autonomous beings with an artificial intelligence.” as far back
as 2003, Laurent Chassaing, Military Systems Analysis Bureau chief, estimated that the UCAV does not have the vocation of replacing the piloted
combat aircraft, that it is accordingly not necessary to have it acquire all
the A/C capacities and especially not to try and make it intelligent and creative. Very recently still, Dassault was not hiding that they would easily
see the nEUROn ( or rather its successor ) be teleoperated from a Rafale twin-seater, an initiative which SAAB does not yet adhere to.]
This excerpt was taken from Air & Cosmos, #1880, march 2003, p.24
There it is in a nutshell, let me add the other program partners include
Alenia with electrical, anemometric and share of IR targeting sytems;
EADS-CASA for the wings, ground control station and integration of THALES’ STANAG7085 compliant datalink;
HAI for the rear fuselage, test bench and stealth outtake nozzles;
RUAG for the wind tunnel activities and weapons carriage.
Dassault thus kept architecture, conception of the demonstrator and the flight
system, assembly and tests both static and in-flight.
I don’t think that I forgot much, Tay.
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