EUNAVFOR ASPIDES is an EU military operation in the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Gulf. The operation was launched a month ago and its objective is to restore and safeguard freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the Gulf.
The operation announced today on social media X (formerly known as Twitter): “On March 20, while conducting close protection under EUNAVFOR ASPIDES in Red Sea, the embarked helicopter of a French destroyer shot down a Houthi UAV threatening the commercial navigation.”
Naval News believes the helicopter involved in this rare interception was an AS565 Panther flying from Air Defense FREMM frigate Alsace (D656). Alsace has been deployed to the Red Sea region since 21 January 2024.
The helicopter can be seen in this good video report recorded aboard the French frigate by French TV channel France 2, (at 0:54 in the video).
The Houthi drone, which looks to be a “Shihab” or “Khatif” or “Samad”, was likely shot down with the 7.62m machine gun fitted aboard French Navy Panthers. (They may also deploy with sharp shooters but it is not clear if special forces are currently aboard the frigate deployed to the Red Sea).
Naval News understands French Navy helicopter crews started routinely training in such interceptions as part of the fleet wide training to counter generic drone threats. Still, this is no small feat as it requires perfect coordination between the sailors aboard the frigate (who are tracking the target via the Herakles radar) and the helicopter crew. Because of the speed of the fixed wing UAV, the helicopter crew likely only got “one shot” for the interception.
Naval News understands too that the event (drone interception by a helicopter) marks a first for the French Navy.
All Panther helicopters in the French Navy belong to flotilla 36F home based in Hyères (Southern France). Naval News visited them in 2019:
Update
The the office of the Joint Chief of Staffs of the French military (Chef d’état-major des armées – EMA) published this video about the interception:
