Inspired by the experience of Ukraine: they created their Seaquest S marine drone in France

The defense company Sirehna in France, a subsidiary of the shipbuilding conglomerate Naval Group, tested its multi-purpose marine drone, which was named  Seaquest S. The length of its hull is 10 meters, and the declared autonomy of work is 24 hours, writes Defense News.

The company that developed this drone noted that during work on the project, they took into account the experience of Ukraine in the use of unmanned boats in the war against Russia in the Black Sea. 

The publication emphasized that the French maritime drone Seaquest is being created as a multi-purpose device that will have modular equipment, depending on the task, i.e. conducting reconnaissance or electronic warfare, patrolling the water area, hunting submarines or destroying enemy ships. 

Also, this naval drone will be based on board warships of the French Navy. 

At the same time head of the unmanned systems division of the Naval Group, Pierre-Antoine Fleisch explained why the “modular ” variant with the equipment of a naval drone for France. According to him, the developers learned that Ukraine creates new models of naval drones every 6 months, because at such a speed the Russian occupiers are “improving the means of countering such weapons”. 

For their part, experts Defense Express commented on the following development:

“From Defense Express, we will put this emphasis here – in other words, the French evaluated Ukraine's experience in the use of maritime drones in such a way that instead of to create a new variant of such a weapon every six months, it is better to immediately lay the possibility of “upgrading” the existing development due to the modular principle of equipping the device.”

At the same time, analysts are interested in the issue of the “cost/efficiency” ratio. Also, at this stage, it is only about launching the first copy of the Seaquest S marine drone, and the company itself, Naval Group, must conduct the entire process of testing this drone and then launch it into mass production. “But on the other hand, at the same time, it will be an interesting example on the topic of how the rethinking of Ukraine's experience in the use of unmanned boats in modern warfare at sea can change,” Defense Express added.