France has requested to buy 16 General Atomics-made Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles from the U.S. government through a potential $1.5 billion foreign military sales agreement.
France intends for the remotely-piloted aircraft to support military intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions and to help coordinate between U.S and French military and peacekeeping forces, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Thursday.
DSCA informed Congress on Thursday of the potential sale that also includes aircraft equipment, training and logistical support services.
The package includes eight mobile ground control stations, 48 Honeywell turbopop engines and 24 satellite earth terminal substations.
France also plans to buy 40 each of the following:
- AN/DAS-1 multi-spectral targeting systems
- embedded GPS and inertial navigation systems
- Ku nand link-airborne systems
- ground data terminals
- identify friend or foe systems
- radio systems
- synthetic aperture radar and ground moving target indicators
