Eurodrone, the joint European military drone program led by Airbus, completed its Preliminary Design Review in May 2024, confirming the design had matured enough to proceed. By late 2025, it had moved further: an internal Airbus Critical Design Review concluded, and an independent panel completed a successful assessment for OCCAR, the program’s procurement agency. Prototype production and ground testing come next, ahead of a maiden flight.
What is Eurodrone?
Eurodrone is a joint European program to build a sovereign medium-altitude, long-endurance military drone, developed by Airbus alongside industrial partners including Leonardo. It’s designed to reduce European reliance on American and Israeli drone platforms for military surveillance and strike missions.
What actually happened at the Preliminary Design Review?
OCCAR, the multinational procurement agency overseeing the program, completed the Preliminary Design Review with member nations in May 2024. That confirmed the design had matured enough to move into detailed design work. It’s a standard early gate in large defense programs, but Eurodrone’s PDR had already been delayed once before clearing it.
What’s happened since then?
The program pushed on to its Critical Design Review. Airbus and its industrial partners worked toward validating the contractual CDR through the back half of 2025. An internal CDR concluded within Airbus, and the documentation was formally accepted into OCCAR’s review process. An independent panel then completed a successful assessment.
What comes next?
With the design phase complete, the program moves into prototype production and ground testing. That work leads toward a maiden flight, followed by qualification activities before the aircraft can enter service. Each of those stages is its own multi-year effort on a program of this scale.
Is every partner nation still on board?
Not anymore. Eurodrone was built around four partner nations: Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. France formally withdrew, pulling all Eurodrone funding from its revised 2024-2030 military spending law. That leaves Germany, Italy, and Spain covering the gap, and it’s expected to push the program’s cost up by more than €700 million. A maiden flight is planned for January 2027, with first deliveries targeted for April 2030.
Sources: Aerospace Manufacturing and Design, OCCAR.
