France’s key assets in the drone war, by Emmanuel Chiva

The news shows it: the drone war is in full swing. Already in Ukraine, the drone is becoming the grenade of the infantryman of the 21st^e century. In the Strait of Hormuz, as in the Red Sea, drone attacks are today the preferred mode of action of our competitors. How to fight back, how to resist? Because the problem with drones is that their industry is first and foremost dual, that is to say a civil and military industry. Today, everyone can buy their drone, from a French, Chinese or American brand. Potentially everyone can add a payload: camera certainly, but potentially an explosive, listening or intelligence charge. This is the whole problem with the drone: the industry is guided by the world of entertainment and is therefore capable of lowering costs and accelerating the pace of development. In response, the field of LAD (anti-drone fight) is not dual. And therefore must find the means of response, of the shield against the sword, but with a delay.

How to fight against a drone? A missile, of course, fulfills the contract, but when an ASTER missile worth more than three million euros knocks down an Iranian Shahed drone worth a few thousand euros, the results are clear: it is the drone that shot down the missile. We therefore have to be more imaginative. This is also what France did during the Paris Olympic Games. Several challenges: detect, identify, and neutralize.

.