Thanks to ten years of research and development and experimentation, DCNS has become the first company to integrate and implement a surveillance drone on board a military vessel, which represents a veritable technology breakthrough in support of naval aeronautics.

By integrating the information transmitted by the drones into the vessel’s combat system, DCNS considerably increases the vessel’s tactical capacities. In effect, drones are able to transmit information and images to the crew in real time. They can perform daytime or night-time reconnaissance missions thanks to their optical sensors, as well as maritime surveillance missions thanks to their automatic vessel identification receiver. Drones can also be deployed to dangerous areas, without the security of the vessel and its crew being compromised. They complement the missions undertaken by helicopters and are able to track a target and gather intelligence. Surveillance drones therefore provide commanding officers with a considerable enhancement to the combat system and an increase in the vessel’s detection and intervention area by extending in time and space the threat surveillance and identification capacities.