On Sunday, April 12, 2026, the French defense portal Opex360 published detailed information about the French Chorus long-range strike drone project, first unveiled on February 24 this year, which is expected to have capabilities similar to those of the FP-5 Flamingo munition used in combat by Ukrainian forces.
Image: FP-5 Flamingo (BenjoP via Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 4.0)
In February of this year, Patrick Pailloux, head of the French Defence Procurement Agenc (DGA) under France’s Ministry of the Armed Forces and Veterans, informed the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee about the new weapon system.
“For drones and remotely operated munitions, under the Chorus program, conducted with Renault and Turgis Gaillard, we aim to develop the equivalent of the Ukrainian Flamingo missile, carrying a 500 kg payload over a distance of 3,000 km, flying at 400 km/h, for the not insignificant unit price of 100,000 euros. We are not going to acquire large quantities of such equipment, which will quickly become obsolete. On the other hand, this work makes it possible to ensure that Renault will be able to produce them in quantity when the time comes,” siad the head of DGA.
The first reports about cooperation between Renault and ETI Turgis & Gaillard in the defense sector, particularly on the little-known Chorus program, appeared in January of this year, around the same time that the DGA ordered One Way Effector strike drones from the European consortium MBDA (in cooperation with Aviation Design), first unveiled at the Paris Air Show 2025 in June of last year. That system, however, is designed to carry only a 40 kg payload over a range of up to 500 km at a speed of 400 km/h. Chorus is intended to be a weapon in a higher class.
As Opex360 has learned, the DGA has granted Renault and ETI Turgis & Gaillard initial funding of EUR 35 million under the Chorus program for research and development work. Although it has been stated that Chorus is to be the equivalent of the FP-5 Flamingo, it is worth bearing in mind that the FirePoint-developed system, while having a declared range of 3,000 km, can carry a warhead weighing as much as 1,150 kg. Powered by an Al-25TL turbojet engine, it can fly at a cruising speed of 850–900 km/h and at a maximum altitude of nearly 4,880 m (16,000 ft).
While Renault is primarily an automotive company and, for the armed forces, mainly a supplier of truck chassis, ETI Turgis & Gaillard is increasingly entering the defense market with military projects such as the large Aarok MALE-class combat drone, which has received government funding, and the Foudre multiple rocket launcher offered under the FLP-T (Feux Longue Portée-Terre) program on a Renault Kerax 6×6 wheeled chassis.
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