PARIS — The advantage that small aerial drones now enjoy on battlefields, including in Ukraine, is just “a moment in history,” French Chief of Staff Gen. Pierre Schill said at the Eurosatory defense show in Paris.
While anti-drone systems lag behind and “leave the sky open for things that are cobbled together but are extremely vulnerable,” countermeasures are being developed, Schill told reporters during a tour of the French military’s booth at the show on June 19. According to the general, 75% of drones on the battlefield in Ukraine are lost to electronic warfare.
“The life of impunity of small, very simple drones over the battlefield is a snapshot in time,” Schill said. “Right now it’s being exploited, that’s clear, and we have to protect ourselves. Nowadays, in the sense of the aerial drone, the sword is powerful, more powerful than the shield. The shield will grow.”
This year’s edition of Eurosatory featured dozens of anti-drone systems, including shotguns, cannons and missiles, while companies including Safran, Thales and Hensoldt presented soft-kill solutions to eliminate drones electronically. Schill said that in two years the vehicles in France’s Scorpion joint combat program will all be anti-drone systems, with their detection capabilities coupled with turrets that can fire a rocket or a 40mm air-burst grenade.
First-person view drones are currently carrying out about 80% of the frontline destruction in Ukraine, while those systems were not in place eight months ago, Schill said. The general said that this situation will no longer exist in ten years, and the question could be asked whether it could end in one or two years. Schill cited the example of the Bayraktar drone, “the king of war” at the start of the conflict in Ukraine, but which is no longer used because it is too easy to fly.
The general said he does not believe the war in Ukraine calls into question France’s choice of a maneuver army built around medium armor, with an emphasis on speed and mobility. The vehicles the Army is introducing as part of the Scorpion program – the Griffon, Serval and Jaguar – can be equipped with active or passive protection, even if a strong emphasis on mine protection means they are ‘quite big’.
Griffons, Servals
The French Army receives approximately 120 Griffons and 120 Servals annually as part of Scorpion, as well as more than 20 Jaguars. The vehicles are equipped with “extremely powerful” information systems and, according to Schill, a vehicle like the Griffon can contain more lines of code than a Rafale fighter jet.
Vehicles developed before the Scorpion program, such as the Leclerc main battle tank, are being reconfigured to become part of the collaborative combat system, allowing, for example, a target detected by one vehicle to be engaged by another. Scorpion was “extremely ambitious”, works and has met expectations, according to Schill.
“Everything we had planned is perfectly in place, but it’s just a matter of cost-effectiveness for certain capabilities,” the general said. Something that wasn’t considered five years ago is the rapid development of microprocessors, meaning the data collected can now be analyzed within the system. the vehicle and not externally. Combined with onboard artificial intelligence, this will enable capabilities such as immediate detection of threats, including drones.
If we want to learn lessons from Ukraine, there must be a distinction between what is situational and related to the type of terrain and battles being fought, and what is structural, the general said. The war in Eastern Europe does not mean that the problems of the past thirty years surrounding risk and crisis management will disappear. “We must remain a multi-faceted army.”
The French choice has been not to divide the army into separate parts suitable for different theaters, for example an intervention army that is agile and mobile and a mechanized armored army that is prepared to fight a war like the one in Ukraine today, with “maybe rougher, lowered vehicles, but which, when they hit a mine, will kill crews.”
Schill said he wants to preserve the “warrior aspect” of the French army, in which every soldier is aware that he can be deployed, rather than a soldier in a territorial defense army “who will never do anything.”
The pace of military drone development means the military cannot commit to large procurement programs because an acquired capability could become obsolete within five months, the general said. Schill said today’s drones fly better than those of two or three years ago, with more computing power on board capable of terrain-based navigation or switching frequencies to avoid interference.
Drones cannot compare to 155mm grenades, which are storable and will remain relevant a decade from now, and the military must “find the right system in this rapidly changing world of new technology,” Schill said. The challenge is to create an industrial model that can be mass produced if necessary, and that is sufficiently standardized.
Future purchases of electronic equipment such as drones, as well as small radios and smartphones, could be made in batches to allow for technological evolution, for example by renewing equipment at the brigade level rather than multi-year programs to equip the entire army with a new piece of equipment . equipment, Schill said.
‘Just not possible’
The general also commented on the future Franco-German Main Ground Combat System, which will consist of several vehicles, some manned and others automated, and combine anti-drone weapons, close-defense anti-aircraft capabilities, missiles and a cannon. Putting all that on one tank would create a vehicle that weighs 80 tons, which is “simply not possible.”
The development of the system will take 10 to 15 years because land-based robotics “is not yet fully mature,” Schill said. Schill said he doesn’t know if the right main gun for the future tank system will be 120mm, 130mm or 140mm, saying that will depend on things like stealth and mobility requirements, and on what the gun’s bore would add in terms of penetration. KNDS, which is involved in the MGCS program, presented a gun that can change its barrel to fire 120mm or 140mm shells.
According to the general, the French Leclerc tank will probably not receive a second upgrade in addition to the current XLR version that is being rolled out. He said the Franco-German agreement covers the next generation system in 2040, making the Leclerc issue a secondary issue.
It will be in France’s interest to piggyback on any capacity expansions by the United Arab Emirates, another Leclerc user, between now and 2040 as a way to finance interim innovations, Schill said. The introduction of the MGCS will not immediately mean the end of the Leclerc, which the general expects to be in service in the French army until 2045.
