Military drones as escorts: France’s combat helicopters test the “dronisation of air combat”

Drones are steadily gaining weight in the war in Ukraine, but in the view of General Pierre Schill this does not change one thing: manned helicopters will remain central on the battlefield. Schill is Chief of Staff of the French Army (chef d’état-major de l’Armée de terre/CEMAT). On this basis, the 3rd Combat Helicopter Regiment (3rd RHC) is currently developing a concept entitled “dronisation of air combat”. It is intended to drive the targeted integration of military drones into the warfighting of the Army’s light aviation (L’aviation légère de l’armée de Terre/ALAT).

Inspection du commandement de l’Aviation Légère de l’@armeedeterre.
L’ALAT tire les leçons des conflits modernes. Elle s’entraîne pour demeurer le fer de lance du combat aéroterrestre.
Les drones, désormais incontournables, sont progressivement intégrés aux côtés des… pic.twitter.com/GHFbyU7rwM— Chef d’état-major de l’armée de Terre (@CEMAT_FR) December 13, 2024

Schill describes the task as “ensuring synergies between helicopter and drone in order to guarantee ALAT’s operational superiority in the 3rd dimension”.

With its development work, the 3rd RHC is thus pursuing a broader goal. The aim is to “strengthen and accelerate cooperation between nano-drones and ALAT aircraft in order to increase the effectiveness of the reconnaissance cycle” – ultimately, it is about “achieving high-intensity tactical effects”.

FPV flight from the Gazelle

In one of the development experiments, a drone pilot sat in a Gazelle combat helicopter and controlled a first-person view (FPV) drone from there. ALAT is currently working on the concept of Aircraft Launched Vehicles. Lieutenant Colonel Bertrand de Kerangat explains it in Combats Futures – in the latest issue of this magazine published by the Future Combat Command (CCF):

“These are devices that produce kinetic or non-kinetic effects at short or medium range”— Lieutenant Colonel Bertrand de Kerangat

The 3rd RHC’s experiments are to produce the operational doctrine for the air-launched drones of the future. Once launched, they are meant to destroy a target up to 20 kilometres away or conduct reconnaissance around their “carrier” helicopter within a radius of up to 50 kilometres.

Military drones as wingmen by 2040

De Kerangat outlines the next step as follows:

“The next phase of the dronisation of air combat could be based on a tactical air combat drone which, in its optimised version, could act as a wingman for a manned helicopter”— Lieutenant Colonel Bertrand de Kerangat

The French military expects air combat to be “drone-supported” by 2040. For Lieutenant Colonel de Kerangat, this means that “the operational concept will change significantly, and helicopters will be accompanied by tactical drones used in all types of operations and in all terrain”.