France is reportedly negotiating its withdrawal from the Eurodrone program with its three partner nations.
Challenges reported on February 11, 2026, that French authorities are negotiating the conditions of a Eurodrone withdrawal with the three partner nations, Germany, Italy, and Spain, which want to continue. That reporting adds that proceeding without the French share could increase the programme bill by more than €700 million.
The stated driver is operational: the magazine describes concern in French official circles that the system is too large and poorly suited to high-intensity conflict. In July 2025, La Tribune similarly reported that the government had begun examining possible exit conditions while signalling it did not intend to withdraw unilaterally.
Program scope and schedule pressure
OCCAR describes the Eurodrone contract as the development and manufacturing of 20 MALE air systems, plus more than five years of initial in-service support; the program manager specifies that this totals 20 systems, 60 aircraft, and 40 ground control stations.
Industrial leadership sits with Airbus Defence and Space, with Dassault Aviation and Leonardo as major partners. Airbus material describes a twin‑engine aircraft with a 30-meter wingspan, a 13‑tonne class maximum take-off weight, and a 2.3‑tonne mission payload excluding fuel, with endurance up to about 40 hours and a design intended for non-segregated civil airspace via certification against NATO STANAG 4671 and applicable parts of EASA CS-25.
Schedule has been a pressure point. The program manager announced the completion of the Preliminary Design Review in May 2024 and of the Critical Design Review in October 2025, concluding the design phase and enabling prototype production and ground tests.
The first flight is planned for January 2027, and the first delivery (an aircraft plus a ground control station) for April 2030.
Partner hedges and national alternatives
As Eurodrone heads into prototype work, interim procurement is hardening into a parallel track. In January 2026, NATO Support and Procurement Agency announced an order for eight MQ‑9B SeaGuardian systems for German maritime surveillance, with deliveries expected to start in 2028.
National MALE options are also progressing. In France, Aura Aero unveiled its ENBATA MALE concept in 2025, developed at the request of the French procurement agency (DGA). Meanwhile, Turgis & Gaillard advanced its Aarok programme from taxi trials in early 2025 to a first flight in September 2025.
Operational relevance in contested airspace
At the centre of the controversy is survivability. A large, non‑stealth MALE aircraft can be valuable for persistent ISR and, potentially, armed overwatch, but typically operates under friendly air superiority, along protected corridors, or with standoff sensing and weapons. If the operating concept assumes routine loitering within dense integrated air defences, payload- and endurance-heavy designs can incur a steep survivability penalty.
This logic is visible in US planning. In 2020, the United States Air Force issued a request for information for a next-generation strike/ISR unmanned aircraft intended to replace the MQ‑9 Reaper, with initial delivery targeted for 2030 and initial operational capability in 2031. In the same year, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems published a low-observable flying-wing concept pitched as an “ultra-long endurance” successor to the MQ‑9.
For Eurodrone, the immediate negotiation concerns cost and industrial workshare if a customer reduces or leaves. The harder strategic question is whether the aircraft that emerges on an early‑2030s timeline can be framed as relevant for contested-environment operations, rather than as a late-arriving ISR workhorse for permissive theatres.