12:33 GMT, March 22, 2010 defpro.com | The French Armament Procurement Agency (Direction générale de l'armement, DGA) today announced that it handed over an unspecified number of Skylark 1 and Wasp mini unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to the French Special Forces Command on 8 March 2010.

Less than three months after having awarded the two contracts (respectively, to Israel’s Elbit Systems on 18 October 2009 and to AeroVironment on 4 November 2009) the DGA handed over the small tactical UAVs after completing all trails required for acceptance of the new equipment.

As the DGA explains, the Wasp UAVs, built by US-based AeroVironment, have been procured for the purpose of operational evaluation and is intended to provide a better understanding of the use of mini UAVs in the armed forces.

The Skylark 1 UAVs of the Israeli company Elbit complement the fleet of UAVs of the type already delivered to the French Special Forces in 2008 and 2009. (nvk)