researcher at the Ifri Centre for Security Studies
Key takeaways
The French Navy is currently working on three types of drones: a medium-sized helicopter drone, a small airborne drone and a drone system for mine countermeasures.
France has a solid industrial base for the construction of naval drones, consisting of small structures and large groups.
The use of drones would allow the Navy to reduce its costs and potential losses and free up personnel for other missions.
Internal institutional factors, related to the weapons development process and their integration within the Navy, are significantly hampering the development of naval drones.
PhD student at I³-CRG* at École Polytechnique (IP Paris)
Key takeaways
Dual-use technologies, with both civilian and military applications, are increasingly coming from civilian industry, which have shorter innovation
timeframes.
Alongside specialised industries, an ecosystem of defence start-ups is emerging whilst still targeting civilian markets for scale-ups.
But while there are dual technologies, true dual companies are rare.
For the armed forces, the use of open innovation also aims at running exploratory projects with the hope that real breakthroughs will emerge.
An open ecosystem, in which public and private players work closely together, makes it possible to attract talent to jobs in short supply.
