DANAE project: A fleet of Armed USV for the French Navy by 2027

The DANAE (for Drone Autonome Naval avec de l’Armement Embarqué or Autonomous Naval Drone with Onboard Armament) project aims to rapidly equip the French Navy with armed Unmanned Surface Vessels (USV). In a first stage, the Marine Nationale expects these drone boats to conduct naval bases protection missions with non-lethal effectors. In a second and longer term stage, the USVs should be able to conduct escort and protection duties of military ships or high value units at sea, with onboard lethal weapons. The first systems from this “innovation acceleration project” are expected to be delivered at the end of 2027.

By Florent de Saint Victor

DANAE armed USV: A three-step process

The selection process is currently underway. Seven industrial consortiums have been shortlisted for the first phase, based on several operational and realistic scenarios: simulated threats, maneuvering threats, detection and avoidance of friendly ships, high-speed raids of several dozen nautical miles to intercept a threat… Trials have been conducted in early 2026 with the evaluation of the various industrial proposals (involving bidders from both military and civilian sectors). Sea trials were also used to determine areas for improvement. The French Procurement Code’s amendments allow public purchasers to establish a structured, long-term partnership covering both the research and development phase and the subsequent pricurement of resulting products, services, or works, without further competitive bidding.

Following this initial stage, three consortiums (exceptionally four if the maturity of certain systems is truly promising) are set to be shortlisted and will receive the tender documents for a second phase centered on prototype design, scheduled within 15 months. A public budget will be shared for this R&D work. A final phase will include the production and maintenance with the initial entry of service of the first systems. The current commitment is to acquire a significant number (at least a dozen firm orders) of systems comprising drones and C2 systems.

This project is being carried out in partnership with the Defense Innovation Agency (or Agence de l’innovation de défense), which funds the trials; the French Navy, as co-leader, and the support of the Naval Department of the French Defence Procurement Agency (Direction Générale de l’Armement – Techniques Navales or DGA TN).

The USVs are expected to demonstrate the following capabilities: combined advanced navigation, threat detection and classification, mission-appropriate endurance, and a human-controlled neutralization system. The main challenges of this project concern the autonomous decision-making process, autonomous navigation to avoid collision (with speeds exceeding 30 knots for some teams), onboard energy management with the objective of ensuring sufficient endurance for missions, and threat management through a remote weapon system to neutralize vessels at a minimum distance of 20 meters with “man-in-the-loop”. The end-game is to test threat detection, classification, possibly intervention (as interposition maneuvers), or to neutralize if necessary.

Seven teams at sea

The seven industry teams which responded positively to the project DANAE bring together complementary expertise to develop a complete autonomous system based on a dedicated platform or a reused platform, notably the current Zodiac Milpro-made French Navy’s rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RHIBs) currently upgraded and which older generations can be used for this kind of purpose. Debates are taking place to decide whether the reuse of this type of platform is ultimately mandatory for the next steps.

The competing teams include major equipment manufacturers (Thales, Exail, the Naval Group subsidiary dedicated to drones Sirehna…), SMEs and startups specializing in the naval drone industry  (Keys4sea, SeaOwl Group, Marine Tech, SEAir), and several equipment providers also present on board the drones.

The 7 consortiums competing for DANAE are:

• Marine Tech: with a drone conversion kit named LPSM (logiciel de planification et supervision de mission) for an existing platform;
• Orcas lead by SEAir: with a flying modular platform with foils and partners such as AEGIR for the C2 system, Diades Marine for the radar and the data fusion, and Sea.Ai for the machine vision;
• Thales: with the Seawolf solution based on a FCC 910 boat produced by Couach designed for high-intensity sea operations, also Sea.Ai for the machine vision;
• Seaowl: with the dual-purpose drone Nemezis (derived from USV Inspire), meaning that with a switch, the French-Navy Zodiac RHIBs become optionally manned vessels;
• Sirehna: with the Seaquest S, also developed in collaboration with Couach;
• Exail: with the CortiX drone solution embarked on a DriX platform but also available on platforms like the Inspector series, a faster USV able to carry a larger payload
• Key4Sea: a solution developed with Safran (in particular for optronics systems) to also rapidly transform a manned vessel into an unmanned vessel

For the second part, including the integration of lethal weapon systems, equipment supplied by MBDA, KNDS France, FN Herstal, Naval Group… could be evaluated, according to our information. For the moment, the effort is focused on non-lethal systems, such as GEIM’s dazzling lasers.

Lessons learned and future steps

One week of trials in the Toulon harbor was conducted from January 19th to 23rd. It was done under real-sea conditions, with three-meter wave troughs. Sea conditions remain complex constraints for drones: speed during raids of several tens of nautical miles, endurance, resistance of onboard equipment, especially on tall masts, etc. The unfavorable weather conditions severely tested both the drones being evaluated and the teams, with breakage.

The interesting approach here is also to accelerate the deployment of drones with specific use cases: area surveillance and escorting the entry and exit of high value units, port protection, and ship escort. This is particularly relevant in the context of threats by drones. Other use cases are under consideration by the French Navy (notably for amphibious operations or special forces operations with other projects currently tested). This initiative strengthens the capabilities of the French Navy for hybrid manned/unmanned fleets and is part of a broader roadmap. In the underwater domain, demonstrations will be funded in 2026 (with several million euros earmarked in 2026) for the XLUUV project, submarines and UUVs teaming, autonomous underwater targets (program CISMA)…

This will be part of a long list of experiments currently being conducted: Task Force X in the Baltic Sea (with new editions to be conducted soon), REPMUS exercises in Portugal…And future ones with Polaris large scale exercises or other demonstrations made under NATO initiatives. This DANAE project is also the first major operation since the launch in 2025 of the naval drone testing and experimentation capability (CapXDN), a joint DGA-French Navy initiative that offers testing facilities, a training area, resources, and collaboration with the French Navy to provide a representative framework.

DANAE: What’s next

The down-select for phase 2 is imminent, with a public announcement set for Euronaval 2026 in November. The three or four selected “best teams” will then launch a prototype construction phase. At the end of this phase, which will last 12 to 18 months, a single winner will be awarded a contract to equip the French Navy with a “mass produced” USV. The final choice is expected by the end of 2027. Prior to this, a longer sea trial phase than the one conducted in January 2026 will take place.

While some teams made a strong impression, for other teams the trials served to better assess the next steps in their technological roadmap. Challenges have come to light on the importance of the platform’s maturity (the reliability, the maintainability and the robustness), on hardware and software integration (from sensors to C2), and on the evolution cycles of the different blocks. Future decisions made through the challenge are forthcoming regarding the future of French USV’s supply chain, and for the balance between equipment manufacturers, drone shipyards, software developers, or systems integrators, and those who position themselves in several roles at once.

Florent de Saint Victor is a French defence and aerospace consultant and the editor of Mars Attaque.