France places order for turbojet-powered Shahed-style drones with MBDA
January 23, 2026
The French Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) stated on Thursday that it has ordered Shahed-style “long-range remote-controlled munitions.” The order was placed last month with the European missile manufacturer, MBDA, and the French drone maker, Aviation Design.
France’s MBDA new kamakize drone
MBDA and Aviation Design are jointly producing a Shahed-style one-way attack munition called the One Way Effector. The first will be delivered to the French forces in mid-2027. The number of drones or the value of the contract has not been disclosed.
🚀 MBDA awarded #contract by the @DGA for the development & production of our ONE WAY EFFECTOR, together with our partner Aviation Design.
— MBDA (@MBDAGroup) January 22, 2026
From concept to contract in under a year.
First flight ➡️ summer 2025
First firing test ➡️ autumn 2025
Read more: https://t.co/GaG5bgRoDy pic.twitter.com/Ye9Ievlo3q
It is to be a long-range, remotely operated munition Shahed-style drone. This family of drones was originally developed in the 1980s by West Germany’s Dornier.
It will have a wingspan of 3.3 metres and a length of 3 metres. While Shahed-style drones typically have a piston engine, this will be powered by a turbojet engine and have a range of over 500 kilometers at a speed of 400 km/h. It will carry a 40kg warhead.
The drone is fired from a ground-based launcher and is a pre-programmed munition not guided in flight by an operator.
The one-way attack drone’s first flight took place in September 2025, just two months before demonstrations for the DGA.
The programme is intended to be cheap and is designed to be fired in salvos to overwhelm the enemy’s air defences. The cost of the munition is estimated in the several tens of thousands of Euros, far lower than the million Euros for a conventional missile.
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France is playing drone catch-up
France’s Le Monde notes France is playing catch-up in this area as it is “one of the most glaring deficiencies in the French armed forces” and “France still lacks this type of remotely operated weapon.”
One of the most important lessons learned from Ukraine is the need for mass and scale. Hundreds or thousands of drones are being produced daily by Ukraine and Russia.
The MBDA Shahed-style drone will be produced at around 100 units annually, but with the capacity to ramp up to over 1,000 a month if needed. It will also be produced in a dedicated workshop so that it doesn’t divert production capacity from MBDA’s core missile business.
Another lesson from Ukraine is the need to be flexible and agile in high-end military planning through to the defence base. Le Monde notes, “For the DGA and a defense contractor like MBDA, accustomed to working on very long timescales, this order is unprecedented.”
Contracts for two more French drones
Le Monde reports France also placed a second order for a drone called Damocles, not to be confused with a US drone of the same name. The first of these was delivered in early December 2025.
Une 1ère munition téléopérée longue portée pour les armées 🇫🇷 : commande notifiée par la DGA à MBDA & Aviation Design pour une aile volante dotée d'une tête militaire de 40 kg
— Forcesoperations (@ForcesOperation) January 22, 2026
➡️Livraison dès 2027
⤵️En image : la solution One Way Effector dévoilée l'an dernier par MBDA pic.twitter.com/zu5c9oghJE
Damocles is produced by KNDS France, the same company that produces France’s Leclerc main battle tank, and the French UAV company, Delair. Damocles is a small, militarised quadcopter with a 10-kilometre range, able to carry a 550-gram warhead.
This comes as reports that French car-maker Renault has agreed to mass-produce French Shahed-style drones with Turgis Gaillard. This is all part of the lessons learn from the rapidly evolving war in Ukraine.
French vehicle manufacturer Renault will start building long-range attack drones at its Le Mans and Cléon plants.
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) January 19, 2026
Renault will produce up to 600 of the drones per month, with some employees voluntarily transferred from the automotive chassis and motor lines. pic.twitter.com/h52Nk57xiG
A common theme with these three contracts is a French industrial manufacturer pairing with a smaller drone specialist that lacks the ability to put their products into mass production. The manufacturer not only has capacity, but also expertise in reducing costs and mass production methods.
Featured Image: MBDA
