Sagem has revealed more details of its Patroller UAV, as the French army prepares to issue a request for proposal for the Système de Drone Tactique (SDT), for which it is a contender. The program is expected to be worth €200 to €250 million (up to $310 million), for the acquisition of 8-10 systems, with three UAVs per system. The other contenders are likely to be the Thales Watchkeeper, and a version of the Textron Shadow M2 that Airbus Defence & Space will propose.

In the latest series of flight tests, conducted last spring, Sagem validated the performance of its Euroflir 410 electro-optical sensor, according to retired French air force general Jean-Pierre Rayssac, the company’s military advisor. It has a centimetric resolution at several miles range, and has seven operating modes, compared with only two on the Watchkeeper’s Elbit Compass EO/IR sensor, he added. Rayssac also noted that the Patroller has a payload of 300 kilos (661 pounds), double that of the Watchkeeper. This allows easier carriage of a second sensor, such as a radar, and therefore allows sensor fusion, he claimed. Sagem believes that this better meets the Army’s three requirements: intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; artillery guidance; and protection of land forces.

The Patroller can also offer additional wing-mounted fuel tanks, giving to the UAV an endurance of more than 20 hours at 20,000 feet. In the next few weeks, the first tests with a sense-and-avoid sensor, developed in cooperation with the automotive group Valeo, will be performed.

Sagem would assemble the Patroller and its ground station in the same factory at Montlucon where the Sperwer tactical UAV was produced. The French army has used the rail-launched Sperwer in Afghanistan and Mali, and it could yet be deployed in the Ukraine. The Euroflir 410 will be made at Dijon, electronic cards at Fougères, and cameras at Poitiers.

In addition to the SDT bid, Sagem wants to sell the Patroller on the homeland security and civil market, for border surveillance, or for search and rescue. Rayssac said that Mexico, Poland and some Middle East countries had expressed interest. According to a report by the French National Assembly, the per-system price of the Patroller and the Watchkeeper are almost the same, at around €20 million.

The British Army announced late last month that the Watchkeeper had been deployed to Afghanistan, even though British troops are due to be withdrawn from there at the end of the year. After considerable delay, the Watchkeeper was finally cleared for entry into UK service last March. Because of the delay, Thales offered, and the Army accepted, a less sophisticated tactical UAV system for use in Afghanistan that included the Elbit Hermes 450 platform, on which the Watchkeeper is based.

Additional reporting by Chris Pocock.