Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier discussed Rafale deliveries and prospects during the company’s annual press conference held in Paris. He also discussed progress with the company’s unmanned aircraft projects.

Dassault will again produce 11 Rafales this year. Egypt will receive three of these, and five will go to the French air force. The other three will be stored before delivery next year to Egypt, which will receive three more in 2017, then 10 in 2018 and the remaining five by mid-2019. Trappier said that training of the Egyptian instructor pilots will be done by both Dassault and the French air force, at Istres.

Trappier said that the Rafale production rate could be increased to 2.5 per month or more, if a second export contract is signed. This could be with India (126 aircraft) or Qatar (24 plus 12 options), he added. The CEO offered no new information on the status of negotiations with India. On Qatar, he said, “We’ve done our job, and now we are waiting.” Dassault is also offering the Rafale to Malaysia, and has answered an RFI, but is still waiting for an RFP, probably for 16 to 18 fighters. Regarding the long-mooted requirement in the UAE for new combat aircraft, “We didn’t reach the stage of a real negotiation, but it’s encouraging," Trappier commented.  

The pan-European Neuron UCAV demonstrator program, led by Dassault, completed its 100th and last test flight in France last month. But another year of flight tests remains, first in Italy and then in Sweden. This is a change from the original plan, which sent the aircraft to Sweden first. The program is running behind its original schedule, but Dassault told AIN this week that it has requested no extra funding from the sponsoring governments.

Dassault reported this week that the Neuron flight tests in France comprised two phases. In the first, expansion of the flight envelope was done (including with weapons bay doors opened); plus testing of the electro-optical sensor and the datalink. In the second phase, most flights were dedicated to testing of the UCAV’s radar and infrared signature against operational systems. These tests were successful. “Neuron is a good compromise between stealth and maneuverability,” Trappier claimed at the press conference.

Dassault also said that “the stealth-related data and feedback [from the Neuron program] will serve as a reference for future aircraft projects.”

This means the Anglo-French future combat aircraft system, which was launched as a two-year study last November. According to Trappier, both manned and unmanned combat aircraft will share the future skies, in a net-centric network.