French Army Starts Receiving Parrot Anafi Micro-Drones

The French Ministry of Defense announced today that the military has begun receiving first batch of Parrot Anafi micro-drones.

The 77 micro-drone systems are being delivered to the drone training center (CFD) of the 61st Artillery Regiment (61st RA). This batch will be used by the CFD to train instructors who themselves will come to instruct the operators in the different units, and for its own imagery intelligence missions. From the first trained and trained users, the drones will be deployed in outdoor operations in early 2022.

The micro-drone’s 32x zoom articulated around two 4K 21-megapixel cameras allows for the detection of person-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.