The industrial goal is to give European firms experience designing and building high-end UAVs and associated technologies, in order to keep them competitive in the global marketplace.

Until June 2005 it had the form of the original Dassault developed Grand Duc vehicle: supersonic two-engined long-range unmanned bomber, capable of performing attacks with nuclear weapons.

This is advocated by the statement that the industrial partners want to invest more in technology development, rather than manufacturing of the flying hardware and weapons, despite the risk of the loss of the single prototype.

[7][8] The program has three stated goals: As a UCAV, nEUROn will be significantly larger and more advanced than other well-known UAV systems like the MQ-1 Predator, with ranges, payloads and capabilities that approach those of manned fighter aircraft.

Although the project is not yet closely defined, illustrations and statements by the consortium partners indicate that the nEUROn is envisioned as a competitive system with the American J-UCAS program's Boeing X-45C or Northrop-Grumman X-47B.

The aircraft will have unmanned autonomous air-to-ground attack capabilities with precision guided munitions, relying on an advanced stealth airframe design to penetrate undetected.

Great Britain didn't join because it was already involved with an American similar program, neither Germany who desisted officially because the country was unable to afford the financial participation.

Meanwhile, the French defence procurement agency, DGA, acting as the program executive on behalf of the participating countries, has entrusted development of the first nEUROn UCAV demonstrator to Dassault Aviation and its European partners.

[10][11] Thanks to the technologies developed for the UAV prototype Sky-x (2003) Alenia Aeronautica was the first industrial partner and claims a 25% share of the entire programme.

Since 2019, the nEUROn has carried out test flights at the Istres Air Base, to increase the operational use scenarios and confrontation campaigns regarding threats.

[23] The contract is valued at €405 million, and allows industry to begin a three-year system definition and design phase with related low-observability studies.

The French Ministry of Armed Forces will invest 128 million euros in 2024 to develop an unmanned combat aerial vehicle, based on the Neuron demonstrator.