Tri-Service

Drone Wars: French Foster British Ties With Technology

The French may have been our allies for many years - but this is the first time their unmanned aerial systems - or drones have flown in British military airspace.

It's part of a two week joint training exercise to foster better relations, understanding and to share knowledge between the British 16th Air Assault Brigade and the French 11th Parachute Brigade, part of an informal alliance that began back in 2013.

Both Brigades routinely use drone technology to gather intelligence on the battlefield, despite slight differences in their specific capabilities.

Flying to a ceiling of roughly 10,000 feet (but most effective at around 500 feet) they provide a discreet eye in the sky, capable of assessing a known threat from a safe distance - or as a protective, watchful eye over a convoy.

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The French drone - or DRAC (Le Drone de Reconnaissance au Contacte) is slightly larger than it's British counterpart - and has a range of 10 km.

Soldiers from the Royal Artillery assemble and fly the Desert Hawk 3 UAS

The camera it uses has a zoom on it - and is counterweighted to keep it stable. It offers sharp pictures in Infra Red too. However the Drac's battery life is short - and when I saw it deployed in a training run - it had to return after approximately 20 minutes.

It's British equivalent, the DH III (or Desert Hawk Three) is smaller and lighter - but has a greater range (15km) and better battery life - but its pictures are less stable, and it can't be operated in the rain.

Another quirk, is that the British use an Xbox controller to look around and acquire targets worth following with the camera.

What struck me most about the training exercise I witnessed was that this was not about showing off who was better or who had the best technology - it was clearly a valuable learning exercise for both sets of troops.

There's a sense that all of this working together is 'money in the bank' - training, learning and understanding one another's systems of work, language and technology that will come in useful if and when these allied Brigades are deployed together in the future.

Below is some video of the French DRAC in action: