The French Ministry of Defence Procurement Office (DGA) re-ordered more DRAC fixed wing mini-UAS from Cassidian last week for use by the French Army in Afghanistan.
The order includes both aircraft and ground control stations and delivery is programmed for between summer 2011 and the beginning of 2013.
The DRAC (known as Tracker outside of France) is a fixed-wing mini-UAS based on an airframe produced by SurveyCopter, France & equipped with a data link produced by EADS and marketed by Cassidian/EADS. It provides day and night imagery in real-time to front line units. The hand-launched aircraft can fly day & night up to 90 minutes and 10 kilometers and transmit data and images in real-time. At present, 60 systems have been delivered to the French Army. The system has been in operation in Afghanistan since October 2010.
A presentation on this experience & lessons learned will be given by the French Army at the UVS International UAS 2011 conference, held in Paris on June 14-16.
Source: Direction Générale l’Armement