July 07, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. by AFP
The French Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, on Wednesday witnessed the successful demonstration of the in-flight destruction of a mini drone using a laser, an experimental system that the armies hope will be operational in 2024.
According to the ministry, this demonstration is the first of its kind claimed by a European country, the United States and Israel being more advanced.
The threat posed by drones "is increasing, both in external operations and on national territory", underlined the minister's office upstream of the demonstration which took place in Biscarrosse (Landes), on a site of tests by the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA).
The phenomenon is global. On Tuesday, two trapped drones were launched against Erbil International Airport in Iraqi Kurdistan, and on Monday, the Americans shot down a drone bomb over their embassy in Baghdad.
More generally, the use of the drone is evolving very quickly as shown by the various theaters of conflict in the world, particularly the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh, pushing States to invest in this area, both for use drones only to guard against them.
The system tested on Wednesday fulfills the three objectives of the anti-drone fight, "to detect, characterize, neutralize", explains the minister's office.
Called Helma-P and developed by the French SME Cilas, it consists of a case mounted on a tripod which contains "a system for detecting the drone, for pointing which makes it possible to follow it and a laser which makes it possible to neutralize it", according to the cabinet.
This neutralization can be done in two ways: either dazzle it to prevent it from orienting itself and therefore immobilize it, or "burn the drone and damage it", which is currently done in "a period of less than 10 seconds. ".
The objective is to be able to use it in 2024, including on the national territory to protect sensitive sites or gatherings like those of the Olympic Games for example, explains the cabinet, while specifying that the doctrine of employment, in particular for protecting the surrounding areas and populations from the effects of the laser or the fall of destroyed drones was in the making.
The tested prototype makes it possible to neutralize small drones, both those found in the market weighing a few hundred grams, to larger ones weighing less than 100 kg. It is able to detect one of these devices up to 3 km, and neutralize it up to 1 km using its laser with a power of 2 kilowatts.
To put France's action in the fight against drones to music, the DGA this year launched its Parade program (Deployable modular anti-drone protection) which provides for investments of around 350 million euros over 11 years.
Currently, the army has in particular Milad drone jamming systems since 2017, deployed for example in the Sahel. "But in the years to come we will see a growing autonomy of drones which will make them immune to jamming", according to the cabinet, making it necessary to find other means of action, such as lasers, interceptor drones (demonstrations are expected at the end of 2022) or electromagnetic guns.
Entitled "Preparing for the drone war: a strategic issue", a senatorial report published on Monday welcomes the "capacity catching up" at work in France in terms of drones - the armies will have several thousand drones by 2025, against a few dozen four years ago - but urges the authorities to expand the French fleet and make anti-drone control a priority, including on national territory where the number of drones, mostly civilians, has increased from 400,000 in 2017 to 2.5 million today
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