Drone Maker Parrot to Supply 300 ANAFI Micro UAVs to France

Drone manufacturer, Parrot has won a tender called by the French defense procurement agency- DGA to supply 300 units its ANAFI USA surveillance micro-drones to the French Army, Navy and Air Force.

ANAFI USA is developed in France and manufactured in the United States. No essential components are produced in China, a Parrot release specifies.

The selected drone ANAFI offers soldiers a micro-drone of 500 grams with day and night observation capabilities with a flight time of 32 minutes.

Florence Parly, French Minister of the Armed Forces, welcomed the order for 300 micro-drones from the Parrot company by the General Directorate of Armaments (DGA). The first deliveries are expected next June. This contract will allow other similar orders for equipment to be made for a period of five years. These micro-drones will equip the three armies and will be intended for reconnaissance and intelligence missions, a DGA release said.

Powerful detection

ANAFI USA is equipped with a powerful 32x zoom, articulated around two 4K 21-megapixel cameras, the detection of human-sized targets is possible up to 2km away with a detail accuracy of 13cm. The zoom images are merged with those obtained by the FLIR Boson thermal imaging camera; the latter allows the detection of hot spots by day and by night. Deployable in 55 seconds, it is also very discreet: with a sound signature of 79 dB at a distance of 1m, it is inaudible from 130m.

Users can benefit from the growing ecosystem of compatible software. For example, they can manage drone fleets in real time (Skyward, A Verizon company and DroneSense), generate visible and thermal photos/videos (Survae) and tactical maps (Pix4Dreact). Parrot’s R&D services are also planned to further adapt ANAFI USA to the needs of the French forces.

The ANAFI platform technology, based on the cell phone component bank, reaches a level of reliability reinforced by the hundreds of thousands of flight hours of consumer drones. ANAFI USA's technology choices offer a cost of acquisition and performance unmatched by those of products traditionally developed for the armed forces.