- Eleven students from an Alsatian town are launching a drone option as part of their Ciel professional baccalaureate (Cybersecurity, IT and networks, electronics).
- The establishment has formed a partnership with the Air and Space Force.
- Instructors notably gave drone piloting lessons to students.
A unique educational training in France which interests the army. The latter looks closely at the students of a professional baccalaureate in Alsace: eleven high school students will in fact take a drone option.
The Louise Weiss high school in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, an Alsatian town of 5,000 inhabitants backed by the Vosges massif, will inaugurate this specialty in 2026. It is part of a Ciel professional baccalaureate (Cybersecurity, IT and networks, electronics). Â By including a drone option in this professional baccalaureate, “the idea was to create an innovative sector which does not exist anywhere else for the moment by using the drone as a tool
“, explained to AFP the teacher of the high school, François Ginoux.Â
Skills that “interest” the army
The establishment has formed a partnership with the Air and Space Force. Army instructors gave drone piloting lessons to students and toured air bases in the region. These are skills that “are interested
“the army, explains to AFP Pascal Fischer, who commands the Regional Recruitment Center of the Air Force.”We need drones
“for the surveillance and security of military sites, and trained people capable of”implement countermeasures
“in the face of hostile drones,” he continues.
The Army had 3,000 drones at the start of the year, it will have 15,000 by the end of 2026.Our effort is to stay up to date with technology and for each soldier to be an operator
” of drones, underlined General Philippe de Montenon, commander of the land operational force, at the end of April, on the last day of the vast Orion 26 military exercise.
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Among Louise-Weiss’s students, Nolan, 17, is destined for a military career and hopes that his knowledge of droneautics will constitute “a little extra, an asset that others won’t necessarily have
“. If using a drone as a weapon is not “not the goal
“, the teenager imagines using it instead for “scout
“or conduct operations of”reconnaissance
“Besides the army, “other sectors are quite buoyant
“, underlines the principal, François Ginoux, quoting “companies that research heat loss on their installations
” or even the agricultural sector.
