Dassault LOGIDUC
| Company type | Industrial initiative |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace, Unmanned aerial vehicles |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Founder | Dassault Aviation |
| Fate | Discontinued in 2003; succeeded by nEUROn program |
| Headquarters | France , France |
| Products | Stealth UAV prototypes (AVE-D Petit Duc, AVE-C Moyen Duc, Grand Duc) |
| Parent | Dassault Aviation |
The Dassault LOGIDUC—also referred to as Logiduc in French and LogiDuc in English—(from the French acronym Logique de Développement d’UCAV, meaning "Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle development concept") was an autonomous industrial initiative initiated in 1999 by the French aerospace company Dassault Aviation to advance UAV design expertise. This endeavor ultimately contributed to the establishment of the Dassault-Sagem Tactical UAV joint venture and the European combat drone program nEUROn.
LOGIDUC encompassed a progression of three stealth UAVs, ranging from a 1/100 scale model up to a full-scale prototype. The objective was to collect essential data for creating a stealth UCAV comparable in size to a fighter jet, intended to complement the Dassault Rafale during the 2010s and to facilitate the development of autonomous stealth fighter aircraft for the French Air Force by approximately 2025.
The initial two platforms, AVE-D and AVE-C, were scaled-down tactical stealth drones weighing 50 kg (1/100 scale) and 500 kg (1/10 scale), respectively. The final iteration was envisioned as a full-scale stealth combat drone prototype with a mass of around 5,000 kg.
Each model derived its name from various owl species ("Duc" translates as "duke" in French), consistent with Dassault’s tradition of avian-inspired designations, such as the Dassault MD 315 Flamant, Dassault Falcon, and Dassault Hirondelle.
The LOGIDUC program followed a three-phase roadmap with specific goals:
- Achieve mastery in stealth aircraft engineering.
- Evaluate performance against contemporary air-to-air and surface-to-air defense systems.
- Investigate unstable yaw control techniques.
- Grand Duc:
- Develop comprehensive mission system simulation.
- Integrate composite pack airborne control mechanisms.
- Enable coordinated flight operations involving multiple drones and manned aircraft.
- Validate live air-to-ground weapon deployment.
Although flight tests were successfully conducted for Petit Duc and Moyen Duc, the Grand Duc project was discontinued in 2003 and succeeded by the European-wide nEUROn initiative.
See also
Media links
- video: AVE-D Petit Duc test flight, 2000 (Aviation Design/Dassault Aviation)
- video: AVE-C Moyen Duc flight accompanied by AVE-D Petit Duc escorting a Rafale, January 2004 (Pascal Fellous/Dassault Aviation)
- video: Overview of AVE-C, AVE-D & nEUROn designs and flights (Dassault Aviation)
- video: Promotional feature on nEUROn (formerly AVE Grand Duc), June 11, 2005 (Dassault Aviation)