French drone manufacturer intends to supply kamikaze drones to Ukraine

According to “Problems“, France In 2023, the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) placed an order with the Toulouse-based SME Delair for 2,000 kamikazes. drones. The drones were intended for use by both the French and Ukrainian defense forces and went through a competitive tender process that attracted a total of 19 manufacturers.

The requirement called for a drone with a minimum battery life of 30 minutes, a range of 5 kilometers (3 miles) and a cost of less than €20,000 ($22,000).

France launched project after French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu said France was “lagging behind” its allies and potential adversaries in developing loitering munitions.

In February 2023, he told the Le Figaro newspaper that lessons learned from Ukraine showed that the French army urgently needed “at least 1,800 low-cost remotely controlled loitering munitions” and planned to field “thousands” of unmanned aerial vehicles by 2030 ( UAV). .

Delair is an experienced manufacturer of commercial surveillance drones, but has no previous experience with combat drones, although it already supplied Ukraine with 150 of its surveillance drones under a separate contract with the DGA last year.

Delair has partnered with Franco-German weapons manufacturer KNDS to develop the drone, which is a modified version of the UX 11 drone, calling the kamikaze version “Kolibri” (hummingbird). The drones were originally scheduled to be delivered in the summer, but Delair/KNDS encountered unspecified technical problems.

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Lecornu said on October 16 that the problem had been resolved, the Colibri had successfully passed pre-acceptance tests carried out jointly by the DGA and the French Agency for Defense Innovation (AID) and entered serial production. A video of the successful live test of Colibri was released by the DGA at the same time as the announcement:

Lecornu confirmed on Wednesday, October 29, that 100 drones will be ready to be sent to Ukraine in the next few days, and operator training is also planned. The remainder of the first tranche will be transferred to the French armed forces in the coming weeks.

Delar claims that the company is now capable of producing up to 1,000 units of the UX 11 UAV per year, divided between reconnaissance and attack versions.

The hummingbird has a wingspan of 1.1 meters (3.6 ft) and weighs about 2.5 kg (5.5 lb). It can be quickly deployed in less than five minutes after completing a task.

It has a maximum flight endurance of approximately 45 minutes and a communications range of 25 kilometers (15 miles), uses an encrypted data transmission system capable of operating in GPS-sensitive areas, and is controlled from an intuitive control station. Delar and the DGA have remained silent on whether the system uses artificial intelligence (AI).

Colibri is designed for short range attacks against previously identified and positioned targets. It carries a 0.5 kg (1 lb) pre-fragmented high-explosive warhead in a military-grade reinforced casing. The warhead functions either by impact with the target or by remote detonation in flight.