French media recently reported that under the Pact project, 1,000 drones were produced and delivered to the French military in record time. Startup Harmattan AI won this contract, involving the small DELCo reconnaissance training drone, which appears to be derived from Sonora.
According to Forces Operations Blog, this drone can remain airborne for 40 minutes, has a 2 km range, and weighs under 2 kg. All 1,000 delivered drones are equipped with daylight cameras, some also have infrared cameras, with a unit cost under €1,000.
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Although the manufacturer managed to produce 1,000 drones within the established schedule and stay within budget (among requirements, recall, was European manufacturing), this naturally affected drone quality, which is far from flawless.
Numerous deficiencies were identified with these drones specifically frequent cases of data loss during takeoff, low infrared camera image quality, as well as interface problems that do not integrate GPS coordinates into the video stream in real time.
Additionally, transporting this small-sized drone requires a bulky case, as the drone arms do not fold. French military personnel hope necessary changes will be made to the DELCo drone to eliminate deficiencies, especially regarding GPS coordinate integration.
Despite these significant deficiencies, particularly for a reconnaissance drone, it is noted that the project goal was not to create a high-tech solution but to provide military personnel with a tool for familiarization with combat operations using drones. This condition was actually set by France's Directorate General of Armaments (DGA). Even a drone with such deficiencies is sufficient for initial training, where they are consumable materials.
In other words, the main requirements were to do it quickly for a defined batch as well as cheaply. These conditions were actually fulfilled. On the other hand, this story once again demonstrates that the West is not yet very effective in attempts to create genuinely cheap and effective weapons samples. A training drone is still a training drone, while the cost of a combat-capable sample in this same case would most likely far exceed €1,000 per unit.
Previously, Defense Express reported that France ordered a reactive Shahed-type dron analog, One-Way Effector from MBDA, which promised to produce 1,000 monthly.
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