On Wednesday, April 8, 2026, the press service of the French Air and Space Force (Armée de l’Air et de l’Espace) announced that on April 2 it had carried out the first firing of an AGM-114 Hellfire anti-tank guided missile from an MQ-9A Reaper Block 5 combat unmanned aerial vehicle, previously adapted for that purpose, against an unmanned target.
Photos: Armée de l’Air et de l’Espace
The test was conducted at the missile range off Île du Levant in the Îles d’Hyères archipelago on the French Riviera, in the Var department, in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. It was overseen by specialists from the Directorate General of Armaments (Direction générale de l’Armement, DGA) under the Ministry for the Armed Forces and Veterans, operators from the 33rd Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Attack Wing (escadre de surveillance, de reconnaissance et d’attaque; ESRA), also known as 01/033 Belfort, based at Air Base 709 Cognac-Châteaubernard, and personnel from the CEAM/AWC test center (Centre d’Expertise Aérienne Militaire/Air Warfare Center), which is responsible for the assessment, experimentation, and operational validation of aerial weapons systems.
The trials were completed just three months after the Hellfire system entered service, and a QinetiQ Banshee Jet 80+ unmanned target drone was successfully shot down. Earlier, in October 2025, firing trials against ground targets were conducted in Corsica before the system entered service.
As emphasized, the trials mark a new stage in building a comprehensive, multilayered air defense system and strengthen existing long-range air defense capabilities, which in the near future will be further reinforced with interceptor drones.
It should be recalled that on September 5, 2017, then French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly announced during another edition of the Summer Defense University in Toulouse that all MQ-9 Block 1 aircraft would be upgraded to the Block 5 standard, which meant integrating weapons on what had previously been purely reconnaissance drones.
On March 22, 2019, the U.S. company General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) received 8.9 million USD to begin work adapting six French Reapers, operated since 2014, to carry weapons. One had been lost in 2018, but it was replaced. In August 2018, another six factory-new MQ-9A Block 5 aircraft were ordered, with deliveries completed by the end of 2020, followed by two additional aircraft in 2021.
Unlike the Block 1 variant, the Block 5 can carry weapons, with a maximum payload of up to 1,360 kg on six of its seven external hardpoints, including GBU-12 Paveway II, GBU-38 JDAM, or GBU-49 bombs, as well as AGM-114 Hellfire anti-tank guided missiles.
For that reason, on July 7, 2023, France received approval to purchase a batch of 1,515 AGM-114R2 Hellfire II missiles to arm both EC665 Tigre HAD (Hélicoptère d’Appui Destruction) attack helicopters and the Reaper Block 5 aircraft discussed here. France had already ordered Hellfire-family anti-tank guided missiles earlier, in 2016 with 200 missiles and in 2022 with 50 missiles, but those were intended for helicopters. In the long term, they are to be replaced by the domestically developed MBDA MAST-F.
The AGM-114R2 Hellfire anti-tank guided missile, also known as the AGM-114R Hellfire II or Romeo Hellfire, is an air-to-ground weapon used against both armored and unarmored targets. The missile entered production in 2012, in parallel with the AH-64E Apache Guardian helicopter. The AGM-114R2 is semi-active laser-guided and fitted with a multipurpose warhead designed to engage various target types. The missile is 180 cm long, weighs 49 kg, and travels at a speed of about Mach 1.3.
Over the past several months, in addition to France, the following countries have also decided to purchase the missiles: Australia (800), South Korea (288), the United Kingdom (395), the Kingdom of the Netherlands (386), Poland (800, with a further 1,844 planned), the Czech Republic (initially 14, then 200), Saudi Arabia (2,500), Slovakia (500, although that purchase remains uncertain), Belgium (240), and Denmark (100), while Italy had done so earlier.
Début avril, en coordination avec la @DGA, l'AAE a réalisé ses premiers tirs anti-drone, avec un missile Hellfire, depuis un MQ-9 Reaper.
Plus d'informations :➡️https://t.co/yVze8DKMnp@CeamAwc pic.twitter.com/y69f0P6rHE— Armée de l'Air et de l'Espace (@Armee_de_lair) April 8, 2026
