«The laser weapon, a game changer against drones»

Thursday June 16, 2022 at 10 a.m. – Balard room – HALL 5A

Speakers:

Meryem Ait-Moussa, engineer at CILAS, specialized in the piloting of experiments and demonstrations of HELMA-P
Laurent Tard, sales manager at CILAS for 2 years after spending more than 25 years in the French army
LtCol Prof Alexandre Papy, part of different NATO and EU Counter UAS initiatives and is chairing the NATO DAT C-UAV project where he recently directed the NNTEX-22C exercise.

Conference presentation:

In 2021, CILAS carried out at the Biscarrosse test center the first real tests of its HELMA-P laser weapon dedicated to c-uavs. During five weeks of testing, the laser weapon shot down 40 drones with 100% hit rate up to a range of 1km.

In 2022, CILAS deployed HELMA-P at the PISQ camp in Sardinia, the largest joint testing ground in Europe, during NNTEX-22C, an operational exercise organized by NATO. The system, operated by military people from the British Army, once again demonstrated its efficiency under safety conditions.

These impressive performances have sparked a strong interest in the laser weapon against drone by the French defense community. Next step is the use of HELMA-P in support of major events protection on French territory or in war operations.