Today, June 17th, the Eurosatory 2024 large-scale defense exhibition has started in Paris. Charles Beaudouin, the chief organizer and retired major general and former head of the French Army’s equipment office, noticed that this year, the event reflects the lessons from over 2 years of the ongoing war of Ukraine against the russian invasion.
In an interview with Defense News, Beaudouin emphasizes six main domains of military technology the visitors should pay attention to at the expo: drones, mobile air defense, long-range artillery, demining systems, electronic warfare, and armored warfare.
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Some of his remarks are worth taking note of. For example, about unmanned aerial systems, he says there's no longer any "reticence" around offensive drones. In 2022, only about half of the drones presented were carrying any sort of weaponry; this time, "everyone has made the jump to loitering munitions," Charles Beaudouin notes. Even the countries that considered attack drones a red line that should never be crossed have changed their views.
The catalyst is the combat effectiveness that loitering munitions and attack drones showed on Ukrainian battlefields. One example of such a change of paradigm is Germany which has recently presented its own FPV drone suited for various explosive payloads.
The trend has also been reflected in the field of mobile air defense: there are multiple types of efficient air defense and anti-drone systems presented at the exhibition that can be mounted on armored or support vehicles to provide "close-in" air cover for the troops on a tactical level.
At least 10 manufacturers will demonstrate their solutions in the long-range artillery department, including the French CAESAR self-propelled howitzer, a weapon that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are effectively using. Besides the guns, among the exhibits are precision-guided artillery ammunition like the M982 Excalibur or its French competitor Katana. In addition, Beaudouin is looking forward to seeing what kind of rocket artillery systems similar to the American HIMARS will be demonstrated by European companies.
With regard to demining, the exhibits at Eurosatory offer solutions for the tactical level of a company or an infantry unit, such as mine plows. In the electronic and cyber warfare domain, the organizer expects to see systems with high resistance to enemy suppression and capability of working without global navigation satellite systems.
As for armored vehicles, Eurosatory 2024 showcases main battle tanks, including Leclerc and Abrams. At the same time, Beaudouin notes that the armored vehicles of the future will have a lower profile, reduced thermal and radar visibility, integrate stealth technologies, and of course, get increased protection against killer drones and improvised explosive devices.
Earlier Defense Express provided a brief overview of the weapons and defense systems Ukraine is demonstrating at the Eurosatory 2024 exhibition.
New prototype tanks presented at the European exhibition Eurosatory 2024:— Leopard 2A8 with KAZ and 12.7 mm turret;— Leopard 2A-RC 3.0 with an uninhabited turret and automatic loader;— Leclerc Evolution with a low-profile turret and an additional crew member responsible for… pic.twitter.com/YLO8jOeldy — Ukrainian Front (@front_ukrainian) June 17, 2024
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