France has begun arming its General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI) MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with a weapon integration contract awarded on 22 March.
The French Air Force is ramping up the recruitment and training of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) crews to cope with the service’s expanding air vehicle inventory.
The Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA), the French defence procurement agency, began the final phase of industrial qualification flights of the Safran Electronics & Defense Système de Drones Tactiques (SDT) Patroller tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from the DGA's flight testing centre in Istres, southern France, on 13 June, the agency and Safran announced on their websites on 17 June.
French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly unveiled France’s space strategy during a visit to the country’s Air Defence and Air Operations Command (Commandement de la Défense Aérienne et des Opérations Aériennes: CDAOA) at Air Base 942 in Lyon Mont-Verdun, the ministry announced on 26 July.
The French Armed Forces Ministry (MoD) ordered 56 Nerva and Caméléon unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) from Nexter, associated with ECA, on 26 August 2019 for the army's Scorpion programme, the Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA) – the French armament procurement agency – announced on its website on 20 September. The agency said the light UGVs would contribute to the protection of dismounted soldiers in all kinds of environments, allowing them to counter potential threats at greater ranges. Equipped with different mission modules, the UGVs will allow engineers and infantry to gather intelligence regularly, the DGA added.