How the French army draws lessons from the war in Ukraine – L’Express

On the weapon square of the Chaumont-Semoutiers air base, in Haute-Marne, it is possible to admire one of the most beautiful collections of military drones in France. Almost a sperwer, an employee in Africa and Afghanistan in the 2010s and withdrawn from the service five years ago, there are two missile aircraft. The R20 drone, inspired by the Nazi bombs V1, was used until the 1980s to do recognition, before being replaced by the CL-289, capable of flying at more than 700 km/h, according to a preprogrammed route , to take silver images.

But all these machines belong to a bygone era. A new era has opened, dedicated to smaller and cheaper aircraft, while the war in Ukraine plans to produce millions of drones per year. French forces now seek to promote, for their needs, mass production of these weapons, while having high -performance software and hardware. This ambition was at the heart of the second edition of the Innovation Drone forum, organized on January 30 and 31 by the 61st artillery regiment-the only one in the army entirely dedicated to drones-installed on the Haut-Marnese base .

“Military innovation is currently carried by drones and guides both technical and tactical and even strategic innovation, reminded the opening of Colonel Pierre-Yves Le Viavant, corps chief of the 61st. The use of drones n ‘ is not new, but its current magnitude is revolutionary. ” Reserved for professionals, the forum of the 61st, called to renew itself, gathered in one place users and industrialists, as well as other actors in the small world of military drones, from different entities, such as the command of the future fight, recently created within the army.

Companies have conducted flight demonstrations and presented their products on stands installed in two large hangars. Participants were able to discover drones capable of browsing dozens of kilometers, short -range wired drones, a grapple drone, a “universal” drone that can accommodate more than 200 different applications, demine drones (they map an area then the secure by dropping weights on mines) and a whole range of elements equipping drones, such as modems ensuring radio with the pilot and optronic balls of different sensors, visuals, infrared or other.

On the stand of the Directorate General of Armament (DGA) was entitled a large rifle-loaded drone equipped with a rocket launcher. This is a demonstrator made to see if such a weapon can find its usefulness among the forces. Another should interest them for sure: it is a small quadricopter, as they can be traded, carrying a rifle grenade, and piloted using immersive glasses giving the feeling of ‘Be on board the drone. This teleoperated munition is what is more commonly called a “FPV drone”. This “suicide bomber” is the weapon currently causing the most human and material losses on the Ukrainian front.

The automotive industry requested

The demonstrator of this “Fronde project”-a reference to the weapon used by David against Goliath-was developed by a non-commissioned officer of the 1st Parachutist Hussars regiment, based in Tarbes. “We are going to make the first shots before summer, which will allow us to see the feasibility for an industrialist and the interest in the forces, we explain at the DGA stand. This is not our first demonstrator Like, we had already worked on a mini-drone carrying a plastic bread with a detonator with the command of special operations. ” Another project is started: that of an FPV drone in spare parts completely manufactured in France, likely to be made of mass.

The great engineers of the DGA, focused on large expensive programs, have long considered these small aircraft with disdain. “They retorted to us that it was only gadgets,” said one of their interlocutors, recently, to L’Express. This is no longer the case. As the forum was held, the general delegate for armaments insisted, during a meeting with the defense press, on the importance of this segment. “Faced with possibilities to participate in a high intensity war, therefore extremely consuming of resources, we cannot afford to stay on the historical way in which we operated with our industrialists [de la défense]”Said Emmanuel Chiva, in office since the summer of 2022.

Following the reflection work started with the signing of the “Drone Pact”, last June, it was therefore decided to request the civil industry – a first for decades – and more precisely the automotive manufacturers. “They are used to working with composite, with manufacturing processes that our arms manufacturers and our small boxes do not know because it would ask them for prodigious investments,” said Emmanuel Chiva. There are preceding distant: during the war of 1914-1918, Renault had thus changed in war economics to produce ammunition, planes and fighting tanks.

A defense manufacturer present at the Chaumont-Semoutiers forum is more explicit: “It takes plans to go from a peacetime tool to a war time, because it is a question of producing 300 times more than Usually, he insisted. To find out how to switch your lines to day one, then on day two and so on. “

Low -cost drones

The DGA indicated that companies, for some civilians, have positioned themselves to “produce 1,000 low -cost drones that can be used as part of a large -scale exercise, Orion 2026. They will therefore have to be delivered in 2025”. He even clarified that “the call for idea made in December 2024” had already received “fifteen answers”, including “Business Groups who say to each other: I can do drones, you know how to do the Production, we put ourselves together to answer it “. But it will be a question of “being in a logic of flow” to respond to the request when it is formulated and thus avoid accumulating unnecessary stocks and equipment exceeded by the latest innovations.

This industrial turning point is expected by the armies. “In the corridors of the Army staff, every hour, we are talking about drones, says one of the officials of this program. In recent years, we have displayed the objective of being the army Of the 3,000 drones, now there is a massification of uses to equip a whole division, knowing that France is committed to being able to engage a whole in a high intensity conflict in 2027. ” This is the objective set by the chief of staff of the army, after a first deployment, this year, of a “good war” brigade. It takes this time: a division is made up of three brigades and if the army currently has two divisions, they do not have the necessary equipment to be fully operational.

The future generalization of FPV drones, as is already the case in Ukraine, also requires other developments. “We must review the doctrines. For example, a combat group is needed around the pilot, which is isolated by a mask, underlines Lieutenant-Colonel Olivier, of the technical section of the Army. And this piloting n ‘ is not within everyone’s reach, it is a full -fledged job that will require a pilot selection system. ” The school of drones, inaugurated in 2023 and installed on the basis of Chaumont-Semoutiers, is preparing for it. “We form more than 1,000 pilots per year for all types of drones, the biggest, the patroller [NDLR : successeur du Sperwer évoqué en début d’article, 18 mètres d’envergure]to the smallest, where it is a question of training instructors who form in turn, underlines its director, Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-Louis Bourgeois. We are working on FPV training, a particular piloting mode, even if it will apply to inexpensive drones, with little autonomy, used to destroy. “

French manufacturers of military drones are already on the ranks to give low -cost drone production solutions. Present at the Innovation Forum, Drone Act, a Morbihan company, has developed a container concept that could contain a dozen 3D printers. “It can be projected on a French basis abroad, where chassis could be produced in series with pre-installed plans to make drone at 60 euros,” said its stand.

On that of Delair, a company installed near Toulouse and which provides drones to Ukraine (DT26, recognition, and UX11, charges), we can discover the “MTO CP”, for “Short TV ammition scope”. Nearly 500 copies should be delivered for the summer of 2025. With a range of 10 kilometers for 40 minutes of autonomy, this quadricopter weighs only three kilos. This prowling ammunition will have a load likely to neutralize a light vehicle and staff. Others, more rudimentary, could be developed. For the French army, it is urgent to master this type of “prowling ammunition”: the Ukrainian army and especially that of Russia, which Western forces must prepare to face, consume millions.