Lacroix Defense and sister company Milton are examining how Milton's Sky Keeper UAV could be used to deploy soft-kill countermeasures for ship self-defence. (Lacroix)
French countermeasures/pyrotechnics house Lacroix Defense and its sister company Milton have begun work to explore the role that small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) could play in persistent soft-kill anti-ship missile defence (ASMD).
The two companies outlined their road map in a 3 October briefing embargoed for Euronaval 2024, which is running from 4 to 7 November in Paris. Work to date has conceptualised how a cluster of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAVs could be put aloft ‘primed' to provide protection during ship transits in high-threat areas.
Lacroix Defense is well known as a manufacturer of soft-kill countermeasures – both radio frequency (RF) and infrared (IR) – for air and naval platforms. Its product portfolio includes the SEACLAD family of naval countermeasures and the Sylena decoy launch system.
Etienne Lacroix Group, Lacroix Defense's parent, acquired Bordeaux-based Milton – a specialist in drone design and secure datalinks – in late 2023. Lacroix sees Milton's expertise being synergistic to the group's increased focus on systems integration, particularly in pyrotechnics.
As part of efforts to understand how Lacroix Defense and Milton could complement each other, the two companies have embarked on feasibility work exploring how Milton's Sky Keeper hexacopter UAV could be used to deploy countermeasures as an adjunct to existing shipboard soft-kill systems. Sky Keeper is a lightweight, carbon-fibre VTOL drone able to stay aloft for over 50 minutes with a 5 kg payload, or less with a maximum of 10 kg payload.
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