July 14: for the first time, a drone will participate in the parade

William Molinié 07:54, July 14, 2022

This July 14 parade allows you to discover the new equipment of the French army.

For the first time, a drone will participate.

As a reminder, the parade begins in the air before continuing on the ground.

The first planes will fly over the Champs-Élysées at 10:34 a.m. and among the fighters and other reconnaissance planes, there will therefore be a drone. 

A remote controlled drone

Army minidrones have already descended the Champs-Élysées on July 14.

But for the first time today, it is an Air Force Reaper drone that will fit between the Mirages and the Rafales.

It is an aircraft fifteen meters long, without a pilot on board and remotely controlled from the Cognac air base, as explained by General Christophe Abad, the military governor of Paris.

"Mastery of the flight of Reapers and drones in general is perfectly acquired on the technical level, with extremely competent and seasoned operators. And there is no difficulty, except that which affects any pilot, to fly over a city such as Paris on July 14, 2022", he explains at the microphone of Europe 1.

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The military has long been reluctant to parade a drone

This drone illustrates France's commitment to the Sahel.

American-made Reaper drones carry out intelligence missions there at an altitude of nearly 10,000 meters to flush out terrorists.

Its presence in the air parade this Thursday is not anecdotal, because for a long time, the Air Force was rather reluctant to parade its drones, for fear of overshadowing its own fighter pilots .

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The Reaper will land in Cognac four hours after taking off.

Its pilot will have flown over the Champs-Élysées from its control screen.