Daher has completed the first flight of its EyePulse medium altitude, long endurance (MALE) drone demonstrator, a rapid-turn prototype built with Thales for a French defense procurement (DGA) call aimed at accelerating sovereign long-endurance unmanned options.
A TBM-derived demonstrator, validated with an autonomous landing sequence
The demonstration flight took place at Tarbes on December 2, 2025, and capped a development effort that Daher says took less than six months.
The EyePulse demonstrator was adapted from Daher’s TBM single-engine turboprop platform and integrated with Thales’s ScaleFlyt avionics suite, ground control station, and command-and-control data links.
The aircraft executed a fully automated flight that included an autonomous landing sequence activated by a DGA delegation on site.
For Daher, the EyePulse demonstrator showcases how a certificated aircraft architecture and an existing industrial footprint can shorten development cycles. The company said the platform was assembled and flown in under six months.
France is trying to move faster on MALE, at lower cost
The program is one of several French-backed MALE initiatives launched after the Paris Air Show 2025, where the DGA outlined plans to support local companies in producing teleoperated MALE demonstrators by 2026.
The broader effort reflects France’s aim to field faster, lower-cost, ITAR-free unmanned systems at a time when Eurodrone delays have pushed European operators toward imported solutions such as the MQ-9 Reaper.
The emergence of parallel demonstrators such as EyePulse and the Turgis & Gaillard Aarok indicates a shift toward more agile, modular architectures that can be industrialized quickly and adapted to different mission sets.
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