- Drones to Open Architectures
- Rearmament for High-Intensity Warfare
- Accelerates Military Innovation and Industrial Resilience
Paris. 16 June 2026. On the second day of Eurosatory 2026, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces highlighted the pivotal role of the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) in transforming France’s military capabilities to meet the demands of an increasingly uncertain security environment. Against the backdrop of high-intensity conflicts, rapid technological advances and renewed great-power competition, the DGA presented its vision for accelerating defence production, fostering innovation and preparing the air-land combat systems of tomorrow.
According to the Ministry in an official statement, recent conflicts have fundamentally altered the requirements of modern warfare, demonstrating that military effectiveness now depends not only on technological superiority but also on industrial resilience, stockpile sustainability and the ability to sustain long-term operations.
The return of high-intensity warfare has underscored the need to transform defence production and support mechanisms. The DGA is therefore spearheading efforts to strengthen the French Defence Industrial and Technological Base (BITD) by increasing industrial output, securing critical supply chains and improving the resilience of national production capabilities.
This effort aligns with France’s war economy approach under the 2024–2030 Military Programming Law and its subsequent updates. The objective is to reduce production timelines, simplify procedures and promote closer cooperation between the armed forces, industry and innovation stakeholders.
The Ministry stated that the ultimate goal is to build an industrial base capable of sustainably supporting both French forces and partner nations in an era marked by strategic uncertainty and global rearmament.
With military technologies evolving at unprecedented speed, the DGA is pursuing a strategy aimed at shortening the cycle between innovation, experimentation and operational deployment. The agency is implementing a “short-loop innovation” model designed to integrate battlefield feedback and lessons from contemporary conflicts more rapidly into military capabilities.This approach is particularly relevant in areas such as drones, robotics, artificial intelligence, electronic warfare, collaborative systems and digitised command-and-control architectures.
The Ministry also highlighted its support for emerging defence innovators through the Defence Innovation Agency (AID), innovation partnerships, operational experiments with the armed forces and cooperation with civilian industry.
The objective, according to the Ministry, is to ensure continuous adaptation to rapidly changing threats and technologies. Recent conflicts have also demonstrated the need for military systems that can evolve rapidly to integrate new capabilities. To address this challenge, the DGA is promoting an approach based on open, modular and scalable architectures that facilitate the integration of new technological components into existing systems.
Such architectures are intended to improve interoperability among systems and allied partners, accelerate innovation, strengthen operational resilience and enable continuous adaptation to emerging threats. The approach also supports the growing role of collaborative systems, robotics and the digitisation of the battlefield.
The transformation of French air-land warfare increasingly relies on the integration of drones, robotics, remotely operated munitions, electronic warfare capabilities, digitised command systems and artificial intelligence.
The conflict in Ukraine has reinforced the central role these technologies play in contemporary ground operations. In response, France is accelerating the deployment of drones, advancing human-machine teaming and integrating collaborative capabilities across its land and air-land forces. This transformation extends across all levels of command—from combat groups to army corps formations.
Simultaneously, France is strengthening fire-support capabilities, ground-based air defence, logistics networks, connectivity and resilient support chains, which are now regarded as essential pillars of operational credibility.
In an era increasingly defined by technological dependencies and geopolitical competition, mastery of critical technologies has become a strategic imperative. France is taking measures to preserve sovereign industrial expertise, secure critical supply chains and reinforce both the national and European defence industrial and technological base. This ambition also rests on expanding European capability cooperation, fostering technological convergence and developing interoperable capabilities among allied nations.
According to the Ministry, defence exports also play a crucial role in sustaining industrial sectors, ensuring programme viability and enhancing France’s strategic influence.The capabilities showcased at Eurosatory 2026, the Ministry noted, reflect the evolution of a defence industry capable of innovating, producing and supporting the long-term transformation of French armed forces in response to the demands of contemporary conflicts.
The vision presented by the DGA at Eurosatory 2026 illustrates how the character of warfare is evolving in an age of high-intensity conflict, technological disruption and strategic competition. From accelerating industrial production and innovation to developing scalable combat systems and strengthening technological sovereignty, France is adapting its defence ecosystem for the challenges of tomorrow. As battlefields become increasingly networked, autonomous and contested, the DGA’s roadmap underscores a broader reality facing militaries worldwide: future operational success will depend as much on industrial resilience and innovation as on military capability itself.
