https://www.economiematin.fr/dga-marche-industrialisation-drones-navals-smokers-50-par-anFrance’s defense procurement agency, the Direction générale de l’armement (DGA), has designed and built a one-way attack uncrewed surface vessel inside its own technical centers, without a prime contractor. According to Florent de Saint Victor and Xavier Vavasseur in Naval News on 26 October 2026, the SMOKERS program went from concept to sea trials in six months. The name stands for “Scalable Maritime Operational Kamikaze System, Developed under Sovereign Control.” The DGA says the project draws on operational lessons from Ukraine and the Arabian Gulf.
A Deliberately Simple Boat
SMOKERS uses a resin-fiberglass composite hull and standard outboard motors of the kind fitted to rigid-hulled inflatable boats. The target unit cost is a few tens of thousands of euros. The boat runs at about 40 knots across a range of sea states and carries an explosive charge the DGA describes as “sufficient to inflict significant damage on a first-rate enemy vessel.” The pyrotechnic system is 3D-printed. DGA engineers also wrote the autonomy software and integrated the onboard sensors.
The work was divided among the agency’s own centers. CERDAN, the DGA’s naval drone expert center at DGA Naval Techniques in Toulon, led the project. DGA Naval Techniques built the first SMOKERS V0 prototype and developed the “dronization” suite: electronics, IT architecture, onboard software, remote-control interface and integration. DGA Hydrodynamic Techniques, which normally tests scale models of complex warships, designed the hull and navigation control software. It then produced an upgraded SMOKERS V1.0 using its own composite moulds, tooling, design office and 3D printers.
From Trials to the Fleet
More than four sea-trial campaigns have been run at Toulon and Cherbourg. They included tests of how easily French Navy surface sensors can detect the boat. The prototypes were mature enough for three of them to take part in the WildFire 2026 exercise, which focused on multi-domain counter-drone operations. Navy crews operated them from the air-defense destroyer Chevalier Paul, the amphibious helicopter carrier Tonnerre and the supply ship Jacques Stosskopf, with DGA technical support. Naval News, embarked on Tonnerre, saw at least one boat set up as a target. It was painted white and lacked the infrared sensors, satellite communications antennas and payload compartment of the operational grey version.
The DGA says the time at sea is improving reliability and allows it “to begin discussions regarding its industrialization.”
Who Builds It, and Who Pays
The DGA owns the design and intellectual property, so it can hand production specifications directly to shipyards. It describes the design as “uncomplicated” enough to be built by “the myriad of small shipyards along the French coast, including those that build leisure boats.” It adds that the prototypes were designed for “easy, low-cost industrialization” open to civilian or military yards, large firms or small and medium-sized enterprises.
So far the money has come from the participating DGA centres’ own budgets. The French Navy has not placed an order. If it decides to buy, procurement would be funded from the Navy’s equipment budget.
Why It Matters
SMOKERS is significant less for the boat than for how it was built. The state agency has acted as designer, integrator and owner of the intellectual property instead of acting only as a customer managing a prime contractor. That puts France closer to the Ukrainian model of maritime drone development, where cheap hulls, commercial propulsion and in-house software are improved quickly with operators involved. Navy crews on three ships handled the boats during a real exercise, and the fleet tested its own sensors against them. That gives the program a two-way value: a weapon for the Navy and a realistic threat for training its air-defense and counter-drone crews.
The idea of production by leisure-boat builders matters most. If the design can be built in coastal yards, the limit on mass becomes production capacity and order volume rather than the throughput of the prime contractors. However, it is still an intention. No order exists and no yard has been contracted. The next test is whether the Navy commits its equipment budget and whether the DGA’s ownership model can turn into steady production at the promised price. If both happen, France will have a template for building uncrewed mass that reaches well beyond a single kamikaze boat.
Sources:
From Concept to Sea Trials in Six Months: France Fast-Tracks SMOKERS Kamikaze USV
French Navy and Naval Group test Rampart CIWS at sea during WILDFIRE Exercise
Drones navals : la DGA cherche un industriel capable de produire jusqu’à 50 SMOKERS par an