Their hum resembles that of a swarm of hornets, whose sound power has been multiplied by ten. On the Brétigny-sur-Orge military air base, in the heart of Essonne, eight drones – decorated for the occasion with fluorescent pink tape – rise one by one into the air, under the control of a team mobile remained on the ground. Once the search area and any overflight bans have been demarcated by the operators, the devices launch in automatic mode: the artificial intelligence (AI) system and the high-definition sensors installed on board the drones will allow them, in a few minutes only, to autonomously produce an extremely detailed 3D map of this wooded area of several hectares – real elevations of buildings and flora, details of the relief and accessible paths included.
On Wednesday, October 16, the Thales group presented to the press its new technological solutions allowing drones to fly in swarms, with different degrees of autonomy unlocked by artificial intelligence. The program, called “Cohesion”, allows devices to perceive and analyze their environment, share information with each other on potential targets, analyze the enemy’s intention, and implement military tactics. collaborative or to optimize their trajectory. Before the eyes of spectators, three drones take off in a swarm with the aim of infiltrating and analyzing several fictitious war zones.
Three minutes after takeoff, one of them discovered a hostile object in the heart of the woods, a potential target to shoot down. It transmits the message to the rest of the swarm, which deviates from its trajectory without the ground teams having to command it. A drone responsible for the radio relay approaches, a second device suspends its mission to support its “comrade” with ammunition and an additional camera. When it is time to fire, the ground teams take control and authorize the operation.
“The Terror of the Infantryman”
On the front, these technological innovations can change everything. “This not only makes it possible to accelerate reconnaissance missions, but also to create a saturation effect with a swarm which can distribute itself tactically and quickly autonomously, reconfigure itself automatically and attack massively upon human decision,” summarizes General Bernard Barrera, advisor to the Thales group. The soldier is categorical: in a war zone, the use of such drones is a real “upheaval”. “These devices are the terror of the infantryman and the tank, because they can go very deep inside an enemy device. Optimized and well used, they are a real game changer“, he confides to L’Express. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict is the best example: every day, thousands of drones are used on the ground by the two armies for reconnaissance missions or “kamikaze” operations. , during which explosives attached to drones explode in the enemy camp to the point, according to General Barrera, that “300 devices” would fall on the front every day.
The technologies developed by Thales would notably allow France to catch up on the subject of the use of drones by the army. In an information report published in 2017the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces thus noted that “France, like other European countries, had largely missed the decisive turning point in drones”. The context was then that of the emergency purchase of medium altitude and long endurance (MALE) Reaper drones in the United States, in order to meet the needs for aerial surveillance in the Sahel, due to the lack of a sovereign solution. “In France, we have focused on the development of more massive drones like Dassault’s Neuron, stealthy and very efficient. But in the meantime, we have fallen behind on tactical drones and mini-drones, from the civilian sector. and which arrived on the market very quickly”, summarizes Cédric Perrin, senator (LR) of the Territoire de Belfort and co-author of several reports on the subject.
“Reconquest of sovereignty”
“The French were not immediately interested in the use of these civilian drones as a weapon of war – their development was so rapid that there is now a gap to be made up on the subject. But it is now “one of the priorities of the ministry and the general staffs”, assures General Barrera. Last March, the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu indicated that he had ordered “2000 tele-operated munitions [MTO, aussi appelés “drones kamizakes”] of French design”, part of which would be intended for Ukraine. Coincidentally, the minister announced this Wednesday, October 16, the marketing of these MTOs by publishing on X the video of a test carried out with “success” “Reconquest of sovereignty in this key segment for our armies, in less than two years,” he added, specifying that deliveries to Ukraine and the French forces would take place in “the coming weeks”.
In a second information report published in 2021Cédric Perrin and his co-authors ensure that since 2019, a “capability catch-up is underway” on the use of drones in the army. The French forces will have “several thousand drones by 2025, compared to only a few dozen four years ago”, he specifies, estimating that “the emphasis has been placed on the acquisition of contact drones […]now essential in all aspects of military activity”. The growing autonomy of drones is also welcomed by the report, which foresees “considerable development” of the latter thanks to progress in artificial intelligence, the development of 5G and inertial navigation A technological acceleration which will allow “people to concentrate on high value-added tasks. […] and to reduce the vulnerability of drones and robots to jamming, to the extent that it eliminates dependence on connections, necessary for remote piloting and navigation,” the document already provided.
Red line on the decision to kill
Such empowerment on the ground of war raises some ethical questions. From 2013, the very possibility of arming drones led to some debates, ending in 2017 with the decision of Minister Florence Parly to arm these devices in the face of “increasingly varied and pernicious threats”. According to the report submitted by Cédric Perrin in 2021, the arming of MALE Reaper drones thus “contributed to ensuring 58% of air strikes against terrorists in the Sahel”. On the other hand, France has very clearly set a red line on the lethal capacity of these drones: the Ministry of the Armed Forces excludes giving up human control with regard to the decision to kill.
“France, unlike other countries, follows a doctrine according to which a man will always remain in the loop in the event of shooting. This red line is also provided by Thales: the goal is not to send a drone which would have permission to shoot anything that moves, including children playing or civilians walking around,” General Barrera guarantees. A strong commitment, nevertheless nuanced by Senator Cédric Perrin in his 2021 report. “There is a risk that we will one day be overwhelmed by our adversaries if they decide to rely completely on the machine. […] Note, in this regard, that a recent UN report reported, for the first time, attacks by lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) against human targets in Libya in March 2020.
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