French carmaker Renault will produce drones for Ukraine and France, marking its first foray into the defense industry since World War II, the multinational manufacturer announced this week.
“We were contacted a few months ago by the French Ministry of the Armed Forces about a project to develop a French drone industry,” Fabrice Cambolive, Renault’s chief growth officer, said in an interview on BFM TV on Tuesday. “We were contacted for our industrial, production, and design expertise. This project is currently underway and is led by the Defense Ministry. We confirm our participation in this project, at the request of the state.”
Partnering with the Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA), which is tasked with procuring weapons for the French Armed Forces, as well as French defense manufacturer Turgis Gaillard, Renault will produce a new unmanned aircraft system (UAS) for the Ukrainian and French militaries.
According to a report in French trade publication L’Usine Nouvelle, Renault will partner with Turgis Gaillard for a 10 year contract worth some €1 billion (US$1.2 billion). The drones will be similar to Iran’s popular Shahed drones, the report said.
Chorus UAS set for production
Dubbed “Chorus,” aviation news outlet AeroTime describes the platform as “a relatively large drone,” with a length of about 33 feet (10 meters) and a wingspan of about 26 feet (8 meters). Furthermore, it reportedly has a top speed of 250 miles per hour, and can operate as far as 16,000 feet high.
According to AeroTime, Turgis Gaillard already developed a design for the platform, and its partnership with Renault is for mass production of the system.
The report in L'Usine Nouvelle says that Renault will manufacture the systems at its existing factories in Le Mans and Cléon. Renault’s Le Mans plants will assemble the airframes, and the Cléon plant will “manufacture and modify” its engines, according to French news outlet BFM TV. Output is expected to reach up to 600 systems per month, depending on DGA orders.
As a loitering munition, more commonly known as a “suicide drone,” Chorus is meant to stay airborne over an area until it identifies a target and crashes into it. Loitering munitions are often cheaper and easier to produce, and have been heavily utilized on both sides of the Ukraine-Russia War and were also heavily used during the Azeri-Armenian wars over Nagorno-Karabakh.
France supports Ukraine through military means
Renault’s shift into defense after almost a century of non-military production could be the result of increased pressure on Europe’s civilian sector to adapt to a climate of armed conflicts. The Ukraine-Russia War in particular has strained the European defense sectors’ capabilities to produce weapons and other military equipment.
European allies have supplied Ukraine with weapons and defense systems worth hundreds of billions of dollars since Russia’s 2022 invasion. France also trains Ukrainian troops and earlier in January president Emmanuel Macron stated his willingness to send “several thousand” French soldiers to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.
Renault’s entry into the defense industry shows how deeply armed conflict impacts Europe’s industrial landscape. Because as European weapon-manufacturing firms work overtime to fulfill the demands caused by the war, civilian-sector manufacturers such as Renault find themselves filling the gaps.
Automakers worldwide have long played this role during wartime. For example, Ford produced airplanes for the US Army during World War 2, while BMW simultaneously produced aircraft engines for the German Luftwaffe.
No different, Renault’s plants produced tanks during World War II, first for the allies and after the German occupation of France, trucks for Germany. Now, almost a century after the war, the French government is once again calling on the country’s automotive industry to assist in production of military equipment.