France begins delivery of 100 loitering munitions to Ukraine

PARIS — France has started transporting loitering munitions to Ukraine for the first time — just a little over six months since the suicide drones were rapidly developed from demonstration standard to war ready, according to an industry executive.

Made by French drone manufacturer Delair and KNDS France, the OSKAR (Opportunity Strike Kinetics Aircraft Ruggedised) platforms are currently “being sent” to Ukraine, Bastien Mancini, CEO of Delair, told Breaking Defense.

Under the French Colibri (Hummingbird) project, 100 of the short-range loitering munitions are due for transfer to Ukraine, as part of broader plans by Paris to acquire 2,000 units of different types overall.

Mancini declined to share additional details about the new deliveries but they fit with a timeframe shared on X, in October, by Sébastien Lecornu, France’s Armed Forces Minister. At the time, Lecornu noted that “successful testing” of the loitering munitions had taken place and deliveries to Ukraine would begin in “the coming weeks.”

Evolved from Delair’s UX11 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and modified to integrate a 2.3 kilogram (5 pound) warhead from KNDS France, OSKAR can fly for up to 45 minutes and has been designed to strike fixed targets, light vehicles and personnel. The back-packable loitering munition was selected as one of two solutions for acquisition under Colibri in March.

In all, “we had six months to transform [our] demonstrator into an operational product … operational with constraints of the ammunition,” Mancini told Breaking Defense. “Now this phase is finished and the [OSKAR] drones are being delivered to Ukraine. They are being sent, I don’t have” further details.

Loitering munitions have flown steadily into Ukraine since the war started and are widely considered cost effective solutions compared to antitank or cruise missiles. As an example, US manufacturer AeroVironment estimated in April that it had provided Ukraine with “thousands” of drones, including Switchblade types.

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Similarly, Delair has already gained product feedback from Ukraine, having provided Kyiv with UX11 and DT26 surveillance drones.

Mancini noted that Russian Electronic Warfare (EW) capabilities continue to present “a real danger” to Ukrainian supplied equipment and stressed that because a platform “works today” does not mean that “it will work in three months.”

The “quality that we need is to remain very adaptive and alert … because so far, we have solutions that work, but … things evolve very quickly on the battlefield,” he said.

To resist EW attacks, OSKAR also uses satellite navigation denied capabilities and can operate fully encrypted, out to a 25 kilometer (15.5 mile) communication range, according to KNDS company literature.

Mancini also said that following Delair’s acquisition, late last month, of French swarming and inspection drone manufacturer Squadrone System, the company could decide to test multiple OSKAR’s in a swarm. He declined to share the value of the Squadrone deal.

The Grenoble-based manufacturer is currently part of the DGA- and Defence Innovation Agency-led Tactical Multi-Objectives Swarming UAVs) TAMOS line of effort — a two-year research and development program exploring development of an interface capable of letting a human operator control the flight of several small-sized UAV’s for civil and defense markets.