France’s Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA) has published a tender in the Europa tender portal for industry to propose new counter-UAS interceptors as part of the Light Equipment for Autonomous System Interception (ELISA) programme.
Deadline for receipt of requests to participate is May 7 2026.
“The French Armed Forces have issued the observation that the equipment for defence against drones, in service with the forces, only partially meets current and future threats, both in quantity and cost,” according to the text (translated from French by google translate). “The ELISA innovation partnership aims to develop and industrialize next-generation interceptor aerial drones, capable of countering current and future threats such as drones or autonomous remotely operated munitions, and that can be implemented without heavy means. The contract consists of a single lot. This is an innovation partnership, which will be implemented in the form of several framework agreements with subsequent contracts (one framework agreement per partner).
“The ELISA innovation partnership concerns drone systems that intercept drones, neutralizing their target by percussion or by an on-board pyrotechnic charge. The class considered for targets to be intercepted includes drones weighing more than 100 kg, flying at a maximum speed of 600 km/h.
The contract for 1,000 interceptor drones is worth around EUR18.7 million and includes “evaluation of existing systems; their supply to meet the immediate needs of the forces; the developments allowing them to increase their maturity and performance in order to be able to neutralize current threats more effectively and to deal with future threats; the supply of new systems resulting from developments and the ability to allow the initial systems to benefit from all or part of the improvements developed; controlled systems support; associated or related services (e.g. training, etc.).”
For more information
https://ted.europa.eu/en/notice/-/detail/238968-2026
(Image: Shutterstock)
The April 2026 edition of the Unmanned Airspace 2026 Global Counter-UAS Systems Directory is now available. This is a vital industry resource, used by government procurement agencies around with world. It provides the reader with a one-stop comprehensive guide to C-UAS systems and capabilities, along with manufacturing companies, their contract wins and partnerships. It is the world’s only comprehensive, updated guide to C-UAS systems under development or in production around the world and contains over 550 company listings with over 1,000 programme and system descriptions. For sample pages, please contact the editor Philip Butterworth-Hayes at philip@unmannedairspace.info.