At the end of July 2024, an innovative initiative emerged at the Peutie barracks: the development of miniature drones. In the facilities of the Centre for Competence in Flying Material and Communication and Information Systems (CCV&C), a team of Belgian military personnel spent a week developing these low-cost drones. The purpose of this initiative is to provide affordable drones to assess needs without incurring significant expenses.
“The idea is to have low-cost drones to determine our needs without spending too much,” explains Major Koen Ceulemans, head of innovation at the Land Component. Military drones can easily cost thousands of euros, which represents a significant expense for testing their potential utility.
Currently, the Defense possesses a wide range of drones. Some, at the brigade level, are large and heavy, like the PUMA LE. Others, smaller but still costly, are used at the platoon level, such as the Parrot ANAFI. The ongoing project aims to evaluate the use of palm-sized drones at the section level, that is, groups of fewer than ten people.