France tests a kamikaze drone to be transferred to Ukraine

16 October, 2024 The Delair UX11 drone. Photo credits: Delair The first tests of a French-made kamikaze drone, which will soon be transferred to Ukraine, took place in France.

Sebastien Lecornu, Minister of the French Armed Forces, announced this on his page on X. According to him, the first successful tests of the new kamikaze drone, ordered from industry as part of a tender launched in May 2022, have been completed. "A successful test of the first French remote-controlled munition, also called a kamikaze drone," Lecornu wrote on his page.

In addition, the Minister added that the kamikaze drone will soon be available for export and supplied to Ukraine to support its defense capabilities on the battlefield. The Defense Innovation Agency (AID) and the French Defense Procurement Agency (DGA) jointly conducted the tests.

The tested drone was developed by NEXTER within the Colibri program, launched in May 2022. The program aimed to rapidly develop French low-cost, teleoperated kamikaze drones that would be easy to use and capable of hitting light targets at a distance of up to 5 kilometers. The prototype is based on the civilian Delair Tech UX11 with a wingspan of 1.1 m and a weight of up to 1.5 kg.

The Delair UX11 drone. Photo credits: Delair

The Minister has not yet shared whether other kamikaze drones by MBDA and NOVADEM, which also took part, will be tested. With relatively small dimensions, the civilian version of the Delair UX11 drone can fly at an altitude of about 2 km, has the ability to take off and land at an angle of 30?, and reaches a maximum speed of 60 km/h.

The civilian version's flight time is 59 minutes, but the version for military use may have a reduced time due to the availability of a warhead.

Militarnyi previously reported that the German Navy is testing the BlueWhale underwater drone, which is designed for covert reconnaissance and searching for enemy submarines.