The French Navy and Army recently conducted the Dragoon Fury 2025 exercise. It consisted in testing new technologies within amphibious operations to better adapt to threats faced in modern warfare.
The troops deployed from the Mistral-class LHD Tonnerre simulated an assault in a “high intensity” context in Southern France near Toulon. Around 700 personnel were involved. This exercise trained the Army and the Navy to work as one to get the best synergies for amphibious operation in an access-denial area.
More than an exercise, the latter was an opportunity for military personnel to work in collaboration with several companies that demonstrated their solutions capabilities, especially in terms of drones to experiment new tactics. A dozen of companies tested and experimented their unmanned systems during the exercise.
The French Navy release the following video about Dragoon Fury 2025:
Celui qui gagne, c’est celui qui s’adapte et prend l’initiative. Dans une force interarmées et intégrée, 700 militaires de la @MarineNationale et de l’@armeedeterre sont mobilisés dans l’exercice DRAGOON FURY. Drones, technologie, tactiques : c’est un défi d’innovation. pic.twitter.com/w5YvWX7nXO
— Chef d'état-major de la Marine (@CEMM_FR) March 13, 2025
Naval News is able to identify the various unmanned systems seen in the video as follows:
Couach Magellan USV (main illustration).
The French Navy implemented this type of exercise in order to make it become the norm. It already conducted such operation in September 2024 with the Wildfire exercise in which the military tested new systems to check if these could fit their requirements and needs in an operational framework that get closer to warfare reality at sea. As previously reported by Naval News, it is thanks to Wildfire-like exercise that the French Navy decided to take the experiment a step further, by taking new systems directly on board a Red Sea-bound vessel for operational deployment, without going through the usual qualification and testing phases.
The Navy published a Linkedin post about the exercise: “Off the coast of Toulon, 700 French Navy and Army personnel are taking part in this high-intensity operational readiness exercise. The tactical objective [is] to conduct an amphibious assault in a contested operational environment using drones. Embarked on the amphibious helicopter carrier Tonnerre, a dozen manufacturers will test these multi-purpose drones in real-life conditions: acquire intelligence, support the deployment of ground troops, firing remotely-operated munitions.“
The French Navy Chief of Staff commented the exercise as follow:
“Adapting capabilities, training and organization, and adapting tactics to the threat. This is the aim of the DRAGOON FURY exercise, which ends tomorrow in the Mediterranean region. DRAGOON FURY is a force projection scenario in a restricted, coastal and contested air-sea area. DRAGOON FURY involves the joint integration of 700 soldiers from the French Navy and Army.
Above all, DRAGOON FURY is a full-scale laboratory for testing all types of drones and drone systems, both defensive and offensive: surface, airborne and submarine drones. It’s the place for tactical innovation in all phases of maneuver:
Before: intelligence, reconnaissance
During: fire in depth, mine warfare, land force projection, air-combat from the Amphibious Helicopter Carrier
After: support for ground troops, defense against multi-milieu multi-field attacks (cyber, informational, electronic warfare…)
DRAGOON FURY is the expression of a culture that runs through the Navy: that of innovation and initiative.”
