France’s defence procurement agency (DGA) has opened a tender for shipborne unmanned surface vessels (USVs) capable of carrying out French Navy missions involving intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), lasting up to 10 days.
The vessels must operate continuously in conditions up to sea state 4, cover at least 100 nautical miles and remain deployed for between five and 10 days, depending on the mission. Applications close on October 15, 2026, and must be submitted through the French State Purchasing Platform.
The USVs will collect intelligence and provide tactical situational awareness above and below the waterline. The procurement requirement calls for a modular, scalable architecture able to carry different payloads.
Several French Navy vessel types must be capable of launching and recovering the systems, among them Mistral-class landing helicopter docks (LHDs) and Loire-class offshore support vessels. Command-and-control (C2) equipment will be installed aboard each host ship.
The DGA could procure up to a few dozen USVs under a composite contract containing fixed-price elements, forms for placing orders and provisional portions. The final quantity and delivery schedule were not specified in the tender information.
To qualify, bidders must show global annual turnover of at least €10 million. In addition, their production facilities or design offices must be located within the European Union or European Economic Area.
Security-of-supply and information-protection provisions will apply because the vessels are expected to operate around naval ships and defence installations. The shipborne requirement also places limits on platform dimensions, weight and handling arrangements while demanding multi-day endurance.
The competition is separate from France’s DANAE armed USV programme, which initially covers naval-base protection using non-lethal effectors. A later phase is intended to add lethal weapons for escorting military ships and other high-value units at sea.
Seven industry consortiums made the shortlist for DANAE’s first phase. Trials included a week of operations at Toulon from January 19–23, 2026, with conditions including three-metre wave troughs. The programme is expected to place at least a dozen firm orders for drones and associated C2 systems, with initial deliveries planned for late 2027.
The French Navy has also tested Naval Group’s Seaquest-S USV aboard a FREMM frigate. The vessel was subsequently deployed from a Loire-class support ship during the REPMUS and Baltic Sentry activities, spending more than 24 hours at sea during a NATO exercise. Those trials were conducted separately from the new competition.