French Leclerc tanks from the UAE-based 5th Cuirassiers Regiment launch Galix screening munitions during an exercise in March 2021. (5e Régiment de Cuirassiers - Armee de Terre )
Lacroix Defense is pitching the new counter-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capability it has developed for its Soft-kill Advanced Protection System (S-KAPS) vehicle countermeasures system as part of an upgrade for the United Arab Emirates' (UAE's) Leclerc tanks, Éric Galvani, the manager of the French company's vehicle protection division, told Janes during the International Defence Exhibition & Conference (IDEX) 2025 held in Abu Dhabi from 17 to 21 February.
The UAE Armed Forces already has Lacroix's Galix smoke grenade launchers fitted to thousands of its vehicles, including the Leclercs, but these are manually operated, so would benefit from being upgraded with the new automated S-KAPS (pronounced ‘escapes'), Galvani said.
The optional counter-UAV capability for S-KAPS primarily uses an infrared sensor provided by Bertin Technologies to detect UAVs when they are flying overhead but can also include an acoustic sensor that can detect them when the vehicle's engine is switched off and a radio frequency sensor that detects a UAV's communications with its operator.
Galvani said the company is currently working on software that enables the system to differentiate UAVs from birds in the electro-optical sensor's field of view and calculate their trajectory to see if the vehicle is being targeted. He said this should be completed by the end of this year.
Normally the counter-UAV capability would also involve the addition of vertical grenade launchers, but the UAE's Leclercs are already fitted with ones that point upwards.
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