France Interested in Procuring Loitering Munition: Will Israel Be Involved?
The French General Directorate of Armaments issued lately a tender to procure a few thousand loitering munitions and at least a hundred ground stations
Eyal Boguslavsky
| 17/06/2023
MBDA and Novadem Colibri drone project. Photo: MBDA official website
Will we soon see the use of Israeli-made loitering munitions by the French army? The French General Directorate of Armaments is stepping up its efforts to procure loitering munitions (LMs) with the issuing of a tender for a portable system.
While estimates in Israel are that France would prefer local manufacturers, it is not impossible that also Israeli companies, such as UVision, will take part in the competition.
According to the German website European Security & Defense, last year – drawing on lessons learned from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 2020 and the ongoing war in Ukraine, that emphasized the impact of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and loitering munitions in tactical-level combat, France urgently requested US-made AeroVironment Switchblade LMs as an initial stop-gap measure.
Around the same time the DGA, together with its Defense Innovation Agency, launched the Colibri and Larinae Projects, intended to lead to the domestic development, production, and deployment of LMs. The Colibri Project covers a small, low-cost system, with a 5 km range and 30-minute endurance. The Larinae (Gull) Project covers a larger LM with a 50 km range and 60-minute endurance that can attack armored or hardened targets. As a third step towards wider employment of tactical UAVs, the DGA has now launched a tender for backpackable LMs.
The DGA tender does not specify the total cost or quantities to be procured, but does state the expectation that “a few thousand” loitering munitions and “at least a hundred” ground stations will be procured.
The tender describes a so-called “remote-operated munitions system” comprising the LM itself and a ground station, the latter encompassing the command-and-control station, the communications system and, if necessary, the launch system. The entire system shall be compact and light enough to be carried by a single soldier and simple and intuitive enough to be operated by “non-specialists”.
As far as the LM itself goes, the tender specifies that it shall “enable operators to observe, at short range, by day and night, mobile and fixed targets, and then cause their neutralization or destruction. The performance, in terms of observation and sound and visual fidelity, shall make it possible to detect targets without being counter-detected.”
The German website presumes that although not specified in the tender, the description of the required LM makes it a reasonable presumption that the present tender is related to the Colibri project. Based on information from this project, one possible candidate for the DGA tender is the Dard from Nexter. The Dard is a recoverable flying-wing design capable of being configured either for surveillance or attack, the latter using a 0.5 kg fragmentation warhead.
Another national possibility is the Sphinx, from MBDA and Novadem. This is reportedly a multi-rotor vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAV, possibly based on the Novadem NX70 quadcopter micro-UAV already in service with the French armed forces.
The French General Directorate of Armaments issued lately a tender to procure a few thousand loitering munitions and at least a hundred ground stations
MBDA and Novadem Colibri drone project. Photo: MBDA official website
Will we soon see the use of Israeli-made loitering munitions by the French army? The French General Directorate of Armaments is stepping up its efforts to procure loitering munitions (LMs) with the issuing of a tender for a portable system.
While estimates in Israel are that France would prefer local manufacturers, it is not impossible that also Israeli companies, such as UVision, will take part in the competition.
According to the German website European Security & Defense, last year – drawing on lessons learned from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 2020 and the ongoing war in Ukraine, that emphasized the impact of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and loitering munitions in tactical-level combat, France urgently requested US-made AeroVironment Switchblade LMs as an initial stop-gap measure.
Around the same time the DGA, together with its Defense Innovation Agency, launched the Colibri and Larinae Projects, intended to lead to the domestic development, production, and deployment of LMs. The Colibri Project covers a small, low-cost system, with a 5 km range and 30-minute endurance. The Larinae (Gull) Project covers a larger LM with a 50 km range and 60-minute endurance that can attack armored or hardened targets. As a third step towards wider employment of tactical UAVs, the DGA has now launched a tender for backpackable LMs.
The DGA tender does not specify the total cost or quantities to be procured, but does state the expectation that “a few thousand” loitering munitions and “at least a hundred” ground stations will be procured.
The tender describes a so-called “remote-operated munitions system” comprising the LM itself and a ground station, the latter encompassing the command-and-control station, the communications system and, if necessary, the launch system. The entire system shall be compact and light enough to be carried by a single soldier and simple and intuitive enough to be operated by “non-specialists”.
As far as the LM itself goes, the tender specifies that it shall “enable operators to observe, at short range, by day and night, mobile and fixed targets, and then cause their neutralization or destruction. The performance, in terms of observation and sound and visual fidelity, shall make it possible to detect targets without being counter-detected.”
The German website presumes that although not specified in the tender, the description of the required LM makes it a reasonable presumption that the present tender is related to the Colibri project. Based on information from this project, one possible candidate for the DGA tender is the Dard from Nexter. The Dard is a recoverable flying-wing design capable of being configured either for surveillance or attack, the latter using a 0.5 kg fragmentation warhead.
Another national possibility is the Sphinx, from MBDA and Novadem. This is reportedly a multi-rotor vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAV, possibly based on the Novadem NX70 quadcopter micro-UAV already in service with the French armed forces.
