The goal of the experimentation with FPV drones is to ‘accelerate cooperation between nano drones and Army Light Aviation aircraft,’ developing the employment doctrine for the Air-Launched Devices concept.
The French Army (Armée de Terre) is moving towards integrating its armed helicopters with attack drones, aiming for “dronization” by 2040. Opex360, quoting French military publications, revealed that, in Dec. 2024, the service integrated an FPV (First Person View) drone with a Gazelle light attack helicopter. The experiment was conducted by the 3rd Combat Helicopter Regiment (RHC), with the drone controlled by a remote operator aboard the helicopter.
In Nov. 2024, the commander of the Army Light Aviation (Aviation Légère de l’Armée de Terre/ALAT), General David Cruzille, shed light on the utility and combined use of drones and helicopters in a podcast hosted by the CCF (Future Combat Command).
The report subsequently revealed the ALAT is working on a Tactical Air Combat (DTA) drone to function as a “wingman” for manned helicopters. On Jan. 7, 2025, the service revealed the DT-46 “convertible” drone, which can either be launched by a catapult or in VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) configuration, thanks to the four upward-facing propellers, before transitioning to forward flight.
Le DT-46 arrive dans les unités de l’@armeedeterre.
Il améliorera encore la capacité des régiments d’artillerie à acquérir et détruire des cibles dans la profondeur du champ de bataille. https://t.co/cHQ2bnsLlp
— Chef d’état-major de l’armée de Terre (@CEMAT_FR) January 7, 2025
The video shared by the Armée de Terre had an instructor of the École de drones (Drone school) explaining that the system is compatible with existing French artillery systems. The service’s major howitzer platform is the 155 mm Nexter CAESAR, which has also been extensively used by Ukraine.
The drone can perform tactical ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance), thanks to a retractable EO (Electro-Optical) ball turret, after being assembled in just 15 minutes. The system weighs less than 30 kg and has a range of 100 km, with an endurance of five hours.
The DT-46 is operated by a crew of four, of which two operator/controllers and two personnel for assembling, launching, recovering and maintaining the drone. Sharing the video, the French Army chief General Pierre Schill said that the DT-46 is currently being fielded by units and “will further improve the ability of artillery regiments to acquire and destroy targets in the depth of the battlefield.”
Making FPV drones and helicopters work together
Opex360 also quoted a Dec. 2024 report by the General Inspectorate of the Army which mentioned that, upon “observing the latest technological advances in current theaters of war, the 3rd RHC [Combat Helicopter Regiment] is currently exploring the possibilities offered by the use of an FPV drone.” The goal is to “accelerate cooperation between nano drones and ALAT aircraft to strengthen the effectiveness of the intelligence loop” and “multiply high-intensity tactical effects.”
The experiment with FPVs is also being used to develop the employment doctrine of future “Air-Launched Devices (ELA)” which the ALAT is currently developing. The concept sees ELAs able to produce “short or medium range kinetic or non-kinetic effects,” to either “destroy a target at 20 km or carry out a reconnaissance flight at 50 km in front of their ‘carrier’ helicopter.”
These should be able to work with “the future Guépard, with its command and control kit for air combat operations.” The Guépard is the Airbus H160 helicopter being acquired as part of the HIL (Hélicoptère Interarmées Léger/Joint Light Helicopter) program.
Images released by the Inspection de l’Armée de Terre showed an operator with a virtual reality (VR) visor while seated on the right side door of the SA341 Gazelle. The helicopter serves in the light attack, utility and scout roles in the ALAT, while the dedicated attack helicopter platform is the Eurocopter EC665 Tiger.
The make of the drone is unclear and the FPV system could not be seen in the photos, although the visor appears to be a consumer-type visor commonly used with FPV drones. Another image showed Electro-Optical footage from an unknown system overhead and footage from the quadcopter-type drone heading into a mock target.
The French Army chief General Pierre Schill, while sharing a representative image of a UAV operator in a control station, said on X that “drones, now essential, are gradually being integrated alongside helicopters.” He added the “challenge” is “ensuring synergy between these two weapons systems to guarantee ALAT’s operational superiority in the 3rd dimension.”
Inspection du commandement de l’Aviation Légère de l’@armeedeterre.
More from The Aviationist
L’ALAT tire les leçons des conflits modernes. Elle s’entraîne pour demeurer le fer de lance du combat aéroterrestre.
Les drones, désormais incontournables, sont progressivement intégrés aux côtés des… pic.twitter.com/GHFbyU7rwM
— Chef d’état-major de l’armée de Terre (@CEMAT_FR) December 13, 2024
The CCF’s latest issue of the Combat Futurs journal quoted Lt. Col. Bertrand de Kerangat, who described ELAs as “devices producing short or medium range kinetic or non-kinetic effects.” The idea is to “have air vectors in large numbers and at a controlled cost.” Kerangat added that “the next phase of the dronization of air combat could be based on a Tactical Air Combat Drone which, in its optimized version, would be capable of acting as a wingman for a manned helicopter.”
Air Launched Devices and ‘mass effects’
How the DT-46 will inform further development and fielding of ELAs or the DTA is not clear. However, it is likely to influence broad operational coordination procedures between manned airborne surveillance-strike platforms and land systems for the service’s combined arms operations.
As The Aviationist previously reported in context of a new UCAV based on the nEUROn to operate as the Rafale F5’s wingman, the French Defense Ministry said on Nov. 21, 2023, it believes future SEAD/DEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses/Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses) would be successfully achieved through combined “combined” and “complementary capabilities” of air and ground assets, and not solely air power.
An Aérospatiale Gazelle from French Army’s 4th Special Forces Helicopter Regiment raining hell. incroyable! #avgeeks #aviation #aviationdaily #aviationlovers #France #helicopter pic.twitter.com/gURe1ZHOUM
— Air Power (@RealAirPower1) January 31, 2024
It must be noted that the Gazelle-FPV experiment and the emerging French concept of SEAD are under the French Army and the French Air Force respectively, and the report currently does not mention or suggest any cooperation between them. However, the vision to kill radars through “combined” air and ground assets, would require some future synergy of their respective drone programs.
The report did also add that the drones will be AI-enabled to “protect them from electronic jamming” and reduce the “cognitive load of the crews.” Such autonomous UAVs would be suitable for combined arms SEAD/DEAD missions.
Developing the ‘drone doctrine’
Opex360 further quoted General Cruzille saying in the podcast that the current technology would help realize the helicopter-drone teaming doctrine “developed 15 years ago.” Drones can allow suitable “freedom of action based on the level of risk or complexity of the operational challenge.” Kerangat added that, following significant modification, ALAT will be “dronized” by 2040 with ELA and a future Tactical Air Combat Drone (DTA) to be used in all types of operations and terrains.”
Opex360, quoting the General Inspectorate of the Army in Dec. 2024, wrote that the 3rd RHC’s experiment with the FPV drone has a “broader ambition.” This is “to accelerate cooperation between nano drones and ALAT aircraft to strengthen the effectiveness of the intelligence loop” and, ultimately, “multiply high-intensity tactical effects.”
Après réception par la DGA, livraison à l’@armeedeterre du 17e hélicoptère #Tigre rétrofité au standard HAD, sur les 37 commandés.
➡️4e Tigre rétrofité livré cette année sur les 5 prévus
➡️Objectif : parc de 67 Tigre HAD à l’horizon 2025 #LPM#NotreDéfense pic.twitter.com/57EFq8MhYh
— Direction générale de l’armement 🇫🇷 (@DGA) September 20, 2022
Utility of attack helicopters
Lastly, General Schill also dispelled claims of the demise of the attack helicopter, given the large number of the losses of the Russian Ka-52 Alligator and Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopters to air defense systems, and the cheaper substitute in attack drones. “It still produces the expected effects on the battlefield,” he said, adding “the manned helicopter has not said its last word” as the “place of man, the primary instrument of combat, remains decisive because he alone authorizes a combat capacity in a jammed environment, when communications no longer work.”
The Aviationist recently reported contrasting developments about the U.S. Army AH-64 Apaches emerging again in the European theater, while South Korea is reconsidering its additional Apache buys. As our analysis showed, Seoul’s pause on the Apaches is likely driven more by cost and defense industrial reasons, rather than the relevance of the attack helicopter.
