Marking a significant advancement in its modernization journey, the French Army debuted the DT46 artillery reconnaissance drone during the annual military parade on the Champs-Élysées—a first for the system. It appeared with the 68th African Artillery Regiment (68e RAA), a historic unit of the 7th Armored Brigade, based in La Valbonne and tracing its origins to 1941 in Tlemcen. The regiment has seen action in a range of missions, from the World War II Provence landings to recent operations in Mali and Afghanistan. As part of the Scorpion program, the integration of the DT46 highlights the unit’s ongoing evolution.
Designed for imagery intelligence (IMINT), the DT46 drone is a key asset in modernizing artillery support, offering enhanced target acquisition capabilities and support for combined arms efforts. It also boosts counter-battery operations by identifying and locating enemy artillery.
The drone weighs 28 kilograms and features an 80 km range, with flight endurance exceeding five hours in fixed-wing mode and over three hours in VTOL mode, enabled by a vertical lift kit. With a 4.7-meter wingspan and 2-meter length, its low acoustic signature is nearly undetectable beyond 200 meters. Its 5 kg payload capacity supports a variety of sensor configurations for reconnaissance and targeting missions.
