TheChek News Flow

Key investors say they support Direct Line’s decision not to engage with its larger rival

Leading Direct Line shareholders are holding out for a higher takeover offer from Aviva after the insurer rejected a £3.3bn proposal from its larger rival.

Several key investors in Direct Line, best known for its motor cover and mascot of a red phone on wheels, have told the Financial Times they supported the board’s decision to dismiss Aviva’s 250p a share proposal as “highly opportunistic” and “substantially” too low.

Direct Line shareholders who spoke with the FT said they backed the board’s decision to not engage with Aviva because the deal undervalued the company.

“250p is nowhere near the right price,” said one top 30 investor. “I think the Direct Line board has done the right thing [ . . . ] You only engage if there’s a proper offer on the table.”

A top 10 Aviva shareholder, who also has a holding in Direct Line, said they would expect the latter’s board to engage only if the offer price were increased above 250p.

The fund manager said that Aviva could also increase its equity portion if it improved the offer, “so if it’s not at the price Aviva wants, at least they have more participation”.

A third top Direct Line shareholder said they were “still monitoring the situation” but added they were so far supportive of Direct Line’s strategy of not yet engaging.

The shareholders’ comments come despite a charm offensive from Aviva, which in recent days has contacted Direct Line investors in an attempt to persuade them of the merits of its “highly attractive” proposal; a move that could pave the way for a hostile bid.

For his part, Direct Line boss Adam Winslow has appealed to investors to give him more time to turn around the struggling insurer, whose depressed share price has made it vulnerable to takeovers. Winslow — himself a former Aviva executive — told the Sunday Times that the company was making “excellent progress in the early stages of a significant turnaround.”

Aviva’s non-binding proposal, first made on November 19, was a 57.5 per cent premium to Direct Line’s closing price of 157.8p on November 27, the day the non-binding approach was disclosed. 

Shares in Direct Line have since November 28 traded at around 230p, or 20p below Aviva’s approach price. Direct Line shares closed up at 236.8p in London trading on Wednesday.

Aviva has until December 25 to make a formal bid or walk away from a deal.

A combination of Aviva and Direct Line would create an insurance group with more than a fifth of the motor market and about 15 per cent of the home insurance segment, according to research by MKP Advisors.

The Aviva offer was the third takeover bid Direct Line has received this year, having rebuffed two approaches from Belgian insurer Ageas. Aviva’s offer was just over 7 per cent above Ageas’s first offer and 5.4 per cent above the second.

Berenberg analysts said they believed Aviva has “ample capacity” to raise its bid, forecasting an improved proposal of 275p.

Aviva declined to comment on the investor views.

Analysts said Direct Line’s share price continuing to trade below the 250p possible offer price was the market’s way of saying that Aviva would fail to secure the deal unless it “digs deeper”.

“We’re in a holding pattern until someone makes the next move, whether that’s Aviva or another party trying their luck to buy Direct Line,” said Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell.

 “It’s increasingly rare for someone to win with their first bid, and it seems clear that Direct Line’s board isn’t budging until Aviva increases its offer by a fair amount.”

London judge found in favour of Spanish bank in dispute over soured property deal

Private equity group Cerberus has been ordered to pay Sabadell more than €400mn after a judge in London found in favour of the Spanish bank in a dispute over a soured multibillion-euro property deal.

Sabadell had sued Cerberus over claims the US group failed to pay what it owed for its purchase about five years ago of distressed Spanish property portfolios.

The case was among the highest value before the High Court and came in the middle of Sabadell seeking to fend off a hostile €11bn takeover bid from its larger Spanish rival BBVA.

The dispute has its origins in a push that Sabadell made to reduce its exposure to Spanish property in the aftermath of the financial crisis, which hit the country hard and triggered a wave of foreclosures.

Sabadell agreed to sell an 80 per cent interest in three portfolios to Cerberus in a 2019 deal that covered a range of assets including offices, warehouses, and apartment blocks.

Under the deal, Sabadell agreed that 20 per cent of the payment would be deferred, because some of the properties were “unregistered”, meaning their ownership status had not been confirmed with the Spanish land registry.

Sabadell’s agreement with the private equity group meant that part of the payment was contingent on the bank subsequently registering properties with the land registry.

But the two sides subsequently disagreed about how the contract had been worded — in particular, what sums were due if a value threshold for the properties that remained unregistered was not met.

In a ruling on Wednesday, the judge Mr Justice Andrew Baker found that Sabadell was entitled to €358mn plus interest of €47mn and costs of £3mn.

Cerberus said it was “disappointed” by the ruling. It said it would “of course abide by the terms of the judgment” but was “considering its options to appeal”.

The group said it believed the court “failed to take into account, and failed to properly interpret, the conduct of the parties and material provisions in the governing investment agreements”.

Sabadell said it welcomed the ruling, which it said would have a “positive impact for the bank in terms of lower NPLs [non-performing loans], reduced provisions and higher coverage”.

“This will contribute towards a further improvement in the bank’s asset quality and risk profile”.

BBVA’s mooted takeover of Sabadell has consumed the attention of the bank’s leaders since it was launched in April and became more protracted last month when Spain’s antitrust regulator said it would subject the deal to an in-depth competition review.

That decision scotched BBVA’s hopes of making a formal tender offer to Sabadell shareholders before the end of 2024. BBVA declined to comment on the court ruling.

The ‘Tigress of Cremona’ continues to sing with vigour on her 76th studio album

In decades past, the FT used to award an imaginary annual Oscar for the year’s best currency. The winner for 1959 was the Italian lira. That year a teenager from Cremona scored her first major hit, a rock-and-roll twirler called “Tintarella di luna”. She was Mina Mazzini, later to become Italy’s best-selling singer.

Like the lira, Mina had her ups and downs. But unlike the obsolete currency, she endures. Now 84, the “Tigress of Cremona”, so named for her forceful voice and stage presence, lives in Switzerland, home of luxurious discretion. She hasn’t played a concert since 1978 and doesn’t give interviews. Yet the albums keep coming. Each one is a hit in Italy while being roundly ignored by the Anglosphere. So far as I can tell, the FT was the only English-language newspaper to cover last year’s Te amo come un pazzo.

Gassa d’Amante is her 76th studio album. Like its predecessor, it has been helmed by her musician son, Massimiliano Pani. He was born out of wedlock in 1963, which provoked a huge scandal. The Vatican tried to torpedo Mina’s career, but she faced down the forces of reaction. Such indomitability, with an octave-spanning voice to match, has placed her in the top rank of European pop divas.

The cover of her new album shows her as an immense figurehead on a flagship galleon. Its title refers to a type of sailor’s knot. The knotty topic at hand is love. The songs are about amorous entanglements and undoings, sung by Mina with feeling and passages of undiminished power.

In “Non smetto di aspettarti”, she vociferates at maximum volume about an absent lover amid politely brushed drums and tinkling ivories, like a grande dame creating a scene during teatime at the Ritz. Other songs mildly modernise her sound. “Senza farmi male”, about another absent lover, is electronic rock with an old-school key change and a squiggly synthesiser solo. “Amami e basta” is a moody ballad with a bombastic streak.

The music is sumptuously textured and stolidly structured. Mina is the principal attraction. The vigour of her singing is affecting, but so are the times when she sounds her age. Her low timbre, crumbling at the edges, is unmistakably octogenarian at those points. The evidence of the years adds to the sense of momentousness. The world turns, times change — and Mina sings on.

Company veteran Iskra Reic moves to Shanghai after Leon Wang placed under investigation by authorities

AstraZeneca has appointed a new head of its China business, after her predecessor Leon Wang was detained by authorities in the country as part of a crackdown on the healthcare sector. 

Iskra Reic will take over from Wang to lead the drugmaker’s business in the country and will be based at the company’s research and development centre in Shanghai, the company said on Wednesday. 

The UK-listed group added that Wang was on “extended leave” while under investigation in China. 

AstraZeneca has not given any details about the probe, which the Financial Times reported previously related to the alleged illegal importation of cancer drug Imjudo. The medicine has not been approved in China. 

A number of staff at the company — the most valuable group listed on the London Stock Exchange — have also been charged with insurance fraud related to sales of lung cancer drug Tagrisso in a separate case. 

Shares in AstraZeneca have fallen about 20 per cent from their highs in late August. 

AstraZeneca has the largest China business of any foreign drugmaker. Wang had run the unit for 10 years, expanding it to become the company’s second-largest market in the world. He was a well-known figure in the industry in China, with deep knowledge and contacts. 

Reic, a Croatian national whose job title will be “executive vice-president, international”, has worked mainly in Europe and Russia. She has no previous experience in China.

She has been at the company since 2001, most recently launching the company’s vaccines and immune therapies unit, after it developed a Covid-19 shot with the University of Oxford during the pandemic. Like Wang, she will have responsibility for the “international” region, which includes Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America. 

AstraZeneca chief executive Sir Pascal Soriot said Reic was a “highly accomplished leader with extensive international experience”, which would be “invaluable” in helping to expand the business.  

Soriot has been enthusiastic about China’s potential as an important hub for science and dealmaking with innovative biotechs, as well as a large market with an ageing population. 

While some investors have been concerned that the probe could be a sign of the company falling out of favour in China, AstraZeneca received positive news last week when China put its breast cancer drug Enhertu on its insurance coverage list. 

Multibillion-dollar ring across London, Moscow and Dubai connected cash-rich criminals with sanctions evaders

A UK-led operation has uncovered a multibillion-dollar money laundering scheme run out of London, Moscow and Dubai that enabled Russian spies and European drug traffickers to evade sanctions using cryptocurrency.

The UK’s National Crime Agency said on Wednesday that its “Operation Destabilise” investigation centred on two companies — Smart and TGR — that acted as a financial hub for cash-rich global criminals and sanctioned individuals relying on cryptocurrency outside the banking system.

The NCA said the network had been used by clients including the Kinahan cartel, Irish cocaine traffickers linked to numerous contract killings, as well as funding ransomware groups, and “Russian espionage operations” from late 2022 to summer 2023.

The illicit network, operating across more than 30 countries, illustrates the growing interaction between hostile states and organised criminals as economic sanctions have forced countries such as Russia to find new ways of operating in the west. The case also shows the increasing use of cryptocurrencies by those cut off from the global banking system.

Rob Jones, director-general of operations at the NCA, said the investigation “is the most significant money laundering operation” that the NCA had ever undertaken.

“It targets . . . a laundromat that brings together at scale street cash and cryptocurrency,” he said. It “takes you from McMafia, through to Narcos, through to le Carré, where you have espionage, where you have transnational organised crime and you have elite Russian-speaking money launderers and cybercriminals”.

The network used couriers to collect physical cash from criminals in one country such as the UK in exchange for cryptocurrency, with Tether the most favoured. The cash would then be laundered through companies and the equivalent value made available in other countries.

This two-way, mutually beneficial trade meant that cash rich cocaine kingpins simultaneously helped Russian cyber criminals and elites to launder stolen crypto and access cash while evading western sanctions.

Tether has replaced bitcoin to become the “cryptocurrency du jour”, according to NCA officials, as its tie to the US dollar helps criminals to ensure the value of the money is retained.

Cantor Fitzgerald, the Wall Street brokerage, has taken a 5 per cent stake in Tether. Howard Lutnick, Cantor’s majority owner and longtime chief executive, has become a prominent evangelist for the stablecoin, which has become a major client of his firm. Lutnick, who is co-chair of Donald Trump’s transition team, was last month nominated to lead the commerce department by the US president-elect.

The British sanctioned Russian state media group RT also used the Smart network to secretly move cash to support “the activities of a Russian-language media organisation in the UK”, the NCA said. Other parts of the Russian-speaking network interacted with a crypto exchange used by Russia to procure western technology for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. 

More than £100bn is laundered in or through the UK every year, according to NCA officials, up to £5bn of which is done via cryptocurrency. The use of crypto to launder money has increased significantly in recent years, spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic when travel bans made it harder to move cash.

TGR, which has an office near London’s Oxford Circus as well as in Dubai, collaborated with Smart by receiving large amounts of physical cash on behalf of its owner Ekaterina Zhdanova.

Zhdanova, a 38-year-old based in Moscow, has graced the covers of business magazines in Russia and was accused by the US Treasury of moving more than $100mn to the United Arab Emirates on behalf of an unnamed sanctioned oligarch. Zhdanova was sanctioned by the US last year and is currently in custody in France.

The NCA cited another instance where Smart and Zhdanova collaborated with TGR to move more than £2mn for a Russian client, helping them bypass “know your customer” checks to purchase British properties.

Over just a four-month period, the network made cash collections across 55 different locations in England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands. At least 22 suspected crime groups used the network.

As part of the investigation, the NCA arrested 84 people, many of whom are in prison, and seized £20mn in cash and cryptocurrency. Five people linked to the network and several companies have been put under economic sanctions by the US Treasury. The operation also involved the US FBI and DEA, as well as French and Irish police.

Wally Adeyemo, US deputy secretary of the Treasury, earlier this year said that “terrorist groups and other malign actors” were “using cryptocurrencies to try and circumvent our sanctions”. In October MI5 director-general Ken McCallum said that Russia and Iran were making “extensive use of criminals as proxies — from international drug traffickers to low-level crooks” to carry out sabotage, espionage and murder operations in the UK.

TGR is run by George Rossi, his second-in-command Elena Chirkinyan and Andrejs Bradens, according to the NCA. All three TGR executives were sanctioned by the US Treasury on Wednesday.

“Through the TGR Group, Russian elites sought to exploit digital assets — in particular US dollar-backed stablecoins — to evade US and international sanctions, further enriching themselves and the Kremlin,” said Bradley T Smith, the US acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

The NCA said that Smart and TGR’s crypto wallet addresses showed regular exposure to Garantex, a crypto exchange sanctioned by the UK and US in 2022, that has been linked “to payments to companies for components of weapons used by Russia in its invasion of Ukraine”.

Blavatnik-backed streaming service will screen matches for free

DAZN, the sports streaming group backed by billionaire Leonard Blavatnik, has agreed a $1bn deal with Fifa to show the new Club World Cup next year.

The UK-based broadcaster has paid for the exclusive global rights to the inaugural month-long 32-club tournament, which will include some of the world’s leading teams such as Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain. 

The deal also includes rights to show other Fifa content, as well as the Fifa+ streaming service, as part of a wider partnership. 

The competition is the latest attempt by Fifa to muscle in on the vast club TV revenues generated by Uefa, the European federation that operates the Champions League. The tournament will be hosted in cities across the US, with 63 matches being played between 32 clubs. 

Unusually for DAZN — which operates a paid subscription platform that shows sports such as boxing, NFL, football and tennis — the tournament will be shown for free. 

The broadcaster will instead rely on advertising and sponsorship to generate income, and will hope to turn the free viewers into paying subscribers.

DAZN, which is funded by Blavatnik, the Ukraine-born billionaire, paid about $1bn in total for the rights to show the games as well as the partnership over its broader content.

Fifa had been in talks with broadcasters over a deal this year, although a deal with Apple TV was reported to have fallen through. The DAZN agreement is only for one year but includes the first option for the follow-up competition planned for 2026.

Football is already DAZN’s most-watched sport. The service shows matches from leagues such as La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, J League, Ligue 1 and the Champions League.

DAZN sees the tournament as providing out-of-season content and so helping to reduce customer churn during the fallow months of the summer.

The deal between DAZN and Fifa is separate to any moves to raise new funds for the broadcaster, according to a person close to the situation.

DAZN has been repeatedly linked with talks to sell a $1bn stake to Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which released a statement in October that “PIF is not currently engaged in discussions with DAZN on this matter and has no current plans to invest in the company”.

The tournament kicks off on June 15 2025 at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, with the final at MetLife Stadium in New York.

If you’re thirsty, you could drink plain water. It’s got zero calories, quenches your thirst, and keeps you hydrated.

But what would be the fun in that? And who would it impress?

No. You need a drink that’s iconic and offbeat. Something with the status that only a celebrity backer can confer.

This seems to be the predominant branding strategy among beverage startups. An analysis of Crunchbase data revealed drinks are an unusually star-studded category for venture investment.

From Beyoncé to Naomi Osaka to Leonardo DiCaprio, a high proportion of the more heavily funded beverage startups have one or more famous names among their investors. Such startups are also heavily clustered in the celebrity-dense Los Angeles area.

To illustrate the nexus of celebrity investors and hydration-focused companies, we put together a list of 10 venture-backed brands, including their famous backers.

Perhaps it says something about our era that A-list celebrities have chosen to offer their names and cash in support of a pretty healthy assortment of drinks.

They’re not marketing alcoholic beverages, or even stuff that’s high in sugar and calories. In fact, two of them — Liquid Death and ZenWTR — are best known for plain water.

Others are on the nonalcoholic beverage bandwagon. The best-known name here is nonalcoholic craft beer maker Athletic Brewing, which has raised the most venture funding of any company on our list. A distant second is De Soi, a maker of alcohol-free aperitifs that counts pop star Katy Perry as a co-founder.

In fact, the only one that could generate a buzz is Cann, a maker of bubbly drinks containing THC and CBD distillate. Even Cann’s founders, however, add a wholesome angle to their pitch, touting organic agave used in place of sugar and the drink’s ability to aid in “rising above the stress of daily life.”

While we’ve grown accustomed to the concept of celebrity-endorsed drinks, at root there’s still something odd about the strong tie between branding and quenching our thirst. After all, most Americans have tap water that can be safely consumed or easily filtered.

Even so, much of our disposable income still goes to beverages. Last year, U.S. retail sales of nonalcoholic packaged beverages topped $246 billion, up 7.5% year over year, per Beverage Marketing Corp. data. That tallies out to over $700 per American annually.

By volume, meanwhile, the most popular packaged drink by far is plain old water, which could explain why we’ve seen marketing-savvy celebrities including Travis Kelce and Beyoncé dipping a toe into the space. It’s not a new phenomenon either, with BMC estimating that water has outsold carbonated soft drinks by volume for at least the past eight years.

Personally, I’ll admit to being reeled in by many of the celebrity-endorsed beverage choices. While filtered tap water may be the cheaper, more practical go-to, it’s hard to compete in a world that also features fizzy, low-cal, probiotic, heavily advertised options all artfully packaged and chilled just right.

There’s a new connected fitness device in town and it’s called Growl. Inspired by hardware companies like Peloton and Tonal, Growl is building a boxing bag that you can attach to your wall at home. Users can then start immersive, gamified boxing classes from the comfort of their home.

It also looks like the team draw some inspiration from boxing classes like Brooklyn Fitboxing — just spying an opportunity to offer a similarly intense fitness experience but without the user having to trek to a studio and sweat it out in a group setting.

“The aim of the product is really to transform the traditional punching bag, which is an object that is over 3,000 years old and hasn’t evolved since. We want to transform it in several ways to turn it into a full-scale, at-home boxing and fitness coach for the whole family for $150 a month,” co-founder and CEO Léo Desrumaux told TechCrunch.

There’s still a long road ahead, as Growl plans to start accepting pre-orders in April 2025. Then it will be another year before it delivers the first units to customers.

On the hardware front, Growl is divided into two main parts. There’s a frame that’s designed to be screwed to your wall. You then attach a boxing bag component onto the frame. Most of the sensing intelligence is located in the frame. The boxing bag itself is mostly made of foam and artificial leather, with five or six accelerometers inside to detect punching power etc.

The frame includes a key component of the device: a 4K projector. It can project a human-sized coach onto the boxing bag and various metrics on the wall. Growl has also been using the projector for a gaming experience (think Tap Tap Revenge on a boxing bag).

Using a projector is a smart approach, as you aren’t punching a display, which means that you can’t break it.

“That’s the beauty of our technology. We mostly use light, and you’ll never break light,” Desrumaux said.

On each side of the frame, there’s one speaker and two cameras with infrared sensors. There’s also an additional camera near the top of the frame, along with some time-of-flight sensors.

The cameras and sensors are used to calculate the impact zone of your punch and your posture. The accelerometers behind the boxing bag are used to calculate the intensity of the punch.

“The core feature of our product is that we reproduce the physical presence of a one-on-one coach, as if they were physically there with you,” Desrumaux said.

The company is working with a handful of coaches with the aim of creating a content library for launch day. But note it won’t be limited to boxing as there will be some yoga, Pilates, and strength training classes, too.

Growl plans to price its device in the same range as Tonal devices. The full price is slated at around $4,500, but most customers will likely opt for a financing option with monthly payments. There will be a subscription plan to access new content as well. The idea is that it shouldn’t cost more than a premium gym membership in total, the startup said.

The Growl team is well aware that the connected fitness industry is crowded these days. But most of these companies have focused on cycling, strength and rowing. And those companies have faced some growing pains.

“The worst thing that ever happened to Peloton was the Covid pandemic,” Desrumaux suggested. “When you look at Peloton, at the time of their IPO, that is a few months before Covid, in September 2019, they have 800,000 households in the U.S., they’re growing 100% a year, they’re making a 50% margin on hardware, a 60% margin on software, and they have 0% in EBITDA. So they’re practically break-even.”

During the lockdown periods, Peloton launched several new products and spent a lot of money. “And then, in the end, Covid was just a brief interlude. The market returned to its original growth trajectory,” he added.

Now, Peloton seems to be out of the woods after a difficult reality check. That’s why Desrumaux believes connected fitness is still an interesting industry as long as you maintain financial discipline — which is his aim with Growl.

Based in Austin, Texas and Paris, France, the company counts Sam Bowen, the former VP of hardware engineering at Amazon, Peloton and Tonal, as an advisor. The startup has raised $4.75 million in seed funding from Skip Capital, Kima Ventures, Teampact Ventures and various business angels, such as former UFC Heavyweight Champion Ciryl Gane.

EXCLUSIF - Après avoir effectué 170 vols de 2012 à 2022, le démonstrateur de drone de combat Neuron, conçu sous maîtrise d’œuvre de Dassault Aviation, va reprendre du service. Objectif : tester des technologies pour le futur drone de combat qui accompagnera le Rafale au début des années 2030.

La retraite du Neuron n’aura pas duré bien longtemps. Selon nos informations, le démonstrateur de drone de combat de Dassault Aviation, qui avait effectué plus de 170 vols de 2012 à fin 2022, devrait prochainement reprendre du service. La Direction générale de l’armement (DGA) devrait, de sources concordantes, prochainement notifier un contrat à Dassault Aviation pour redonner du potentiel de vol à l’appareil, actuellement stocké sur la base aérienne 125 d’Istres. En clair, lui permettre de démarrer une nouvelle campagne d’essais.

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Pourquoi la DGA et Dassault ressortent-ils le Neuron des hangars ? L’idée est de se servir de ce démonstrateur pour tester des technologies clés en vue du développement du drone de combat (UCAV) qui accompagnera, à l’horizon 2033, le chasseur Rafale dans sa future version, dite F5. Les travaux devraient notamment permettre de muscler les capacités de connectivité de l’appareil, la prochaine phase de tests étant destinée à tester ses performances de combat collaboratif avec le chasseur Rafale. « Ce drone de combat furtif, concomitamment au Rafale F5, contribuera à la supériorité technologique et opérationnelle des ailes françaises à partir de 2033 », indiquait Eric Trappier, le PDG de Dassault Aviation, le 8 octobre.

La retraite du Neuron n’aura pas duré bien longtemps. Selon nos informations, le démonstrateur de drone de combat de Dassault Aviation, qui avait effectué plus de 170 vols de 2012 à fin 2022, devrait prochainement reprendre du service. La Direction générale de l’armement (DGA) devrait, de sources concordantes, prochainement notifier un contrat à Dassault Aviation pour redonner du potentiel de vol à l’appareil, actuellement stocké sur la base aérienne 125 d’Istres. En clair, lui permettre de démarrer une nouvelle campagne d’essais.

​​​​​​​

Pourquoi la DGA et Dassault ressortent-ils le Neuron des hangars ? L’idée est de se servir de ce démonstrateur pour tester des technologies clés en vue du développement du drone de combat (UCAV) qui accompagnera, à l’horizon 2033, le chasseur Rafale dans sa future version, dite F5. Les travaux devraient notamment permettre de muscler les capacités de connectivité de l’appareil, la prochaine phase de tests étant destinée à tester ses performances de combat collaboratif avec le chasseur Rafale. « Ce drone de combat furtif, concomitamment au Rafale F5, contribuera à la supériorité technologique et opérationnelle des ailes françaises à partir de 2033 », indiquait Eric Trappier, le PDG de Dassault Aviation, le 8 octobre.

L’appareil sera un drone du type « Loyal Wingman » (ailier fidèle), contrôlé depuis le Rafale. Il sera chargé, expliquait Sébastien Lecornu en octobre, d'« appuyer l’avion dans la reconnaissance, le combat air-air comme dans les missions air-sol ». « Sa furtivité, son positionnement au-devant du Rafale, lui préparera le chemin et facilitera la pénétration (de l’appareil) », ajoutait le ministre. Dans son avis budgétaire sur les crédits de l’armée de l’air et de l’espace, le député RN Frank Giletti indiquait que « le drone accompagnateur (UCAV) capitalisera sur les travaux du démonstrateur Neuron mais sera bien plus ambitieux technologiquement ».

Selon les documents budgétaires annexés au projet de loi de finances 2025, 821 millions d’euros ont déjà été fléchés vers ce programme. Ce financement est évidemment conditionné au vote du budget des armées tel qu’il a été présenté par le gouvernement (hausse de 3,3 milliards d’euros), ce qui est loin d’être garanti avec la probable censure du gouvernement Barnier.

Les programmes de drones d’accompagnement de ce type se sont multipliés ces dernières années. Airbus Defence & Space a dévoilé en juin dernier, au salon aéronautique ILA de Berlin, un projet comparable au Wingman destiné à accompagner le chasseur Eurofighter Typhoon. La start-up californienne Anduril et le fabricant du drone Reaper General Atomics ont été sélectionnés en avril pour développer des « Wingmen » aux chasseurs habités de l’US Air Force.

Boeing développe quant à lui un drone de combat, le MQ-28 Ghost Bat, pour l’armée de l’air australienne. La Russie et la Chine ne sont pas en reste : Moscou développe un engin baptisé Sukhoï S-70 Okhotnik-B, conçu pour voler en tandem avec le chasseur Su-57. Un exemplaire a été abattu au-dessus de l’Ukraine par un avion de combat russe début octobre, pour des raisons encore incertaines. Quant à la Chine, elle a indiqué en 2022 travailler sur un Loyal Wingman, le Feihong FH-97A, conçu pour coopérer avec le chasseur habité J-20.

La retraite du Neuron n’aura pas duré bien longtemps. Selon nos informations, le démonstrateur de drone de combat de Dassault Aviation, qui avait effectué plus de 170 vols de 2012 à fin 2022, devrait prochainement reprendre du service. La Direction générale de l’armement (DGA) devrait, de sources concordantes, prochainement notifier un contrat à Dassault Aviation pour redonner du potentiel de vol à l’appareil, actuellement stocké sur la base aérienne 125 d’Istres. En clair, lui permettre de démarrer une nouvelle campagne d’essais.

​​​​​​​

Pourquoi la DGA et Dassault ressortent-ils le Neuron des hangars ? L’idée est de se servir de ce démonstrateur pour tester des technologies clés en vue du développement du drone de combat (UCAV) qui accompagnera, à l’horizon 2033, le chasseur Rafale dans sa future version, dite F5. Les travaux devraient notamment permettre de muscler les capacités de connectivité de l’appareil, la prochaine phase de tests étant destinée à tester ses performances de combat collaboratif avec le chasseur Rafale. « Ce drone de combat furtif, concomitamment au Rafale F5, contribuera à la supériorité technologique et opérationnelle des ailes françaises à partir de 2033 », indiquait Eric Trappier, le PDG de Dassault Aviation, le 8 octobre.

821 millions d’euros pour le futur drone de combat

L’appareil sera un drone du type « Loyal Wingman » (ailier fidèle), contrôlé depuis le Rafale. Il sera chargé, expliquait Sébastien Lecornu en octobre, d'« appuyer l’avion dans la reconnaissance, le combat air-air comme dans les missions air-sol ». « Sa furtivité, son positionnement au-devant du Rafale, lui préparera le chemin et facilitera la pénétration (de l’appareil) », ajoutait le ministre. Dans son avis budgétaire sur les crédits de l’armée de l’air et de l’espace, le député RN Frank Giletti indiquait que « le drone accompagnateur (UCAV) capitalisera sur les travaux du démonstrateur Neuron mais sera bien plus ambitieux technologiquement ».

Selon les documents budgétaires annexés au projet de loi de finances 2025, 821 millions d’euros ont déjà été fléchés vers ce programme. Ce financement est évidemment conditionné au vote du budget des armées tel qu’il a été présenté par le gouvernement (hausse de 3,3 milliards d’euros), ce qui est loin d’être garanti avec la probable censure du gouvernement Barnier.

Airbus prépare un drone similaire

Les programmes de drones d’accompagnement de ce type se sont multipliés ces dernières années. Airbus Defence & Space a dévoilé en juin dernier, au salon aéronautique ILA de Berlin, un projet comparable au Wingman destiné à accompagner le chasseur Eurofighter Typhoon. La start-up californienne Anduril et le fabricant du drone Reaper General Atomics ont été sélectionnés en avril pour développer des « Wingmen » aux chasseurs habités de l’US Air Force.

Assemblage final du drone Neuron à Istres, par les équipes de Dassault Aviation

Assemblage final du drone Neuron à Istres, par les équipes de Dassault Aviation Crédit: Sebastien Randé / Dassault Aviation

Boeing développe quant à lui un drone de combat, le MQ-28 Ghost Bat, pour l’armée de l’air australienne. La Russie et la Chine ne sont pas en reste : Moscou développe un engin baptisé Sukhoï S-70 Okhotnik-B, conçu pour voler en tandem avec le chasseur Su-57. Un exemplaire a été abattu au-dessus de l’Ukraine par un avion de combat russe début octobre, pour des raisons encore incertaines. Quant à la Chine, elle a indiqué en 2022 travailler sur un Loyal Wingman, le Feihong FH-97A, conçu pour coopérer avec le chasseur habité J-20.

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Le Neuron, appareil furtif d’une envergure de 12 mètres et d’une masse à vide de 5 tonnes, a été développé sous maîtrise d’œuvre de Dassault Aviation par une équipe d’industriels européens associant l’italien Leonardo, la filiale espagnole d’Airbus Defence & Space, le suédois Saab, le suisse RUAG et le grec HAI. Cette gouvernance originale, avec un vrai leader industriel et une organisation claire, avait permis de tenir les délais prévus, et de respecter le budget de développement (405 millions d’euros, dont à peu près la moitié financée par la France).

Tests avec le porte-avions Charles de Gaulle

Le Neuron avait effectué son premier vol le 1er décembre 2012. Après trois années de tests à Istres (domaine de vol, liaison de données, signature radar…), l’appareil avait été transféré en Sardaigne, puis en Suède, pour de nouveaux tests. Un essai de tir d’une bombe de 250 kg avait notamment été effectué avec succès le 2 septembre 2015 depuis le centre d’essai de Vidsel (nord de la Suède). L’appareil était ensuite revenu à Istres pour de nouvelles campagnes de tests, notamment des essais avec le porte-avions Charles de Gaulle.