{"id":69104,"date":"2024-06-18T10:51:23","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T10:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2024\/06\/18\/france-rethinks-military-light-drone-acquisition-as-army-falls-behind\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:06:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:06:42","slug":"france-rethinks-military-light-drone-acquisition-as-army-falls-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/global\/europe\/2024\/06\/18\/france-rethinks-military-light-drone-acquisition-as-army-falls-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"France rethinks military light-drone acquisition as Army falls behind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">PARIS \u2014 France is changing its acquisition process for light military unmanned aerial vehicles to become more nimble and signed a pact with local drone makers as the country\u2019s Army threatens to fall behind in a technology that military leaders say is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/global\/europe\/2024\/05\/14\/ukraine-russia-race-to-shield-battle-tanks-from-exploding-drones\/\">remaking warfare<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">French Armed Forces Minister Sebastian Lecornu signed a \u201cdefense UAV pact\u201d at the Eurosatory defense show here on Monday that provides the basis for working with the nation\u2019s industry on defense drones below 150 kg (331 lbs), French armament agency DGA said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The country \u201cmay have run up a bit of a delay\u201d in the area of drones, and rather than developing drones for the coming years, France will cooperate with UAV makers to make a technological jump to the next generation of drones for the early 2030s, Lecornu said in a speech at Eurosatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All aerial drones that France sold to Ukraine were developed in-house by manufacturers without development input from the French armed forces, retired Maj. Gen. Claude Chenuil, a fomer military-acquisition executive, said during a round table discussion at Eurosatory. He said the Ukrainian armed forces will be using 1 million drones this year, compared with a French Army target to buy \u201ca few thousand drones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">France is investing \u20ac5 billion ($5.4 billion) in drones through 2030 as part of its military programming law, with the stated goal of developing a French loitering-munitions industry by the end of this decade, as well as achieving swarm-flight capability. The defense budget law included a target for the Army to have 3,000 tactical drones by 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/unmanned\/2023\/09\/12\/ukraine-war-drives-push-for-arming-smaller-drones\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-1253311975.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Ukraine war drives push for arming smaller drones<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The war in Ukraine is pushing drone makers to focus new attention on arming smaller variants.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Drones are changing combat, from loitering munitions to intelligence gathering, \u201cand if we\u2019ve fallen behind, it\u2019s high time that we catch up,\u201d said Maj. Gen. Erwan Salmon, the head of the ground combat management unit at DGA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">France needs to be able to acquire drones quickly and renew them as required by the pace of drone innovation, as well as be able to mass produce UAVs, \u201cthat\u2019s the whole point of the defense drone pact,\u201d Salmon said. That will require changing acquisition strategies to avoid ending up with drone systems \u201ccompletely out of step with the innovations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">French defense contracts often start from an armed forces requirement, after which the armament directorate drafts the specifications before organizing a contract, leading to programs that can take 10 years between the expression of a need and delivery, said Bastien Mancini, the CEO of French drone manufacturer Delair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cStructurally, this is not possible with drones,\u201d Mancini said. \u201cTechnologies are evolving fast. We need to be able to shorten lead times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The armament directorate will probably need to set up some financing to be able to quickly buy and test off-the-shelf products, to determine whether they should be acquired in larger numbers, Salmon said. The directorate\u2019s acquisition service is looking into financing of technology bricks that could underpin the development of new systems, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The defense UAV pact will be a useful forum for industry cooperation, including between smaller French drone makers and larger defense firms, according to \u00c9ric Lenseigne, vice president for drone warfare at Thales. Given the size of the French market, exports will be needed to reach critical size, and export commitments could be an area of further cooperation, Lenseigne said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thales estimates the global market for drones of less than 150kg to be worth more than \u20ac2.5 billion, with growth rates of 14% per year, according to Lenseigne, with the market expected to remain \u201cdynamic\u201d even in case of cessation of hostilities in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Four French drone makers \u2013 Parrot, Eos Technologie, Delair and Hexadrone \u2013 have delivered drones to Ukraine, where they seem to be doing \u201ca good job,\u201d Mancini said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, the industry for military UAVs in France is fragile, with the development of an industrial-scale drone requiring an investment of \u20ac5 million to \u20ac10 million, compared with revenue for Delair of around \u20ac30 million this year, according to the CEO. \u201cSo consolidation is bound to come naturally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There will be a minimum threshold of buying required to allow the French drone industry to develop new solutions and payloads, according to Col. Herv\u00e9 Mermod, program coherence officer with the French Armed Forces General Staff. France would need to finance a strategic reserve that would pay for maintaining an industrial capacity to scale up drone production in case of need, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>French defense leaders seek ways to short-circuit the military-acquisition bureaucracy, as drones remake the battlefield in 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By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>France rethinks military light-drone acquisition as Army falls behind - Defense News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"French defense leaders seek ways to short-circuit the military-acquisition bureaucracy, as drones remake the battlefield in Ukraine.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"France rethinks military light-drone acquisition as Army falls behind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"French defense leaders seek ways to short-circuit the military-acquisition bureaucracy, as drones remake the battlefield in Ukraine.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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