Schaeffler and Delair join forces to accelerate drone production in France

Schaeffler and Delair, a leading French developer and manufacturer of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have entered into a new strategic cooperation aiming to support the industrial ramp-up of Delair’s drone production and strengthen Europe’s sovereign unmanned aerial systems capabilities, by launching a new production line for drones and interceptors that will be able to deliver 100 units per day by November 2026.

The new production line will allow to manufacture the Damoclès drone, which is already qualified by French DGA and equips the French Army, as well as the newly announced Aspik Interceptor.

The production line, located in France, will give Delair the means to propose competitive products at large scale. The parties intend to develop a durable industrial partnership supporting the production of multi-rotor drones and related subsystems, with the shared objective of strengthening Europe’s defense industrial base and accelerating the availability of scalable, high-performance unmanned aerial systems.

“Schaeffler brings proven industrial capabilities that are highly relevant to the drone sector,” said Rémy Triouleyre, Regional CEO Europe of Schaeffler. “We see strong potential in supporting Delair’s growth through serial assembly, production scaling and component supply, while contributing to the development of resilient European defense-industrial capacity.”

“This cooperation with Schaeffler marks an important step in Delair’s industrial and European development,” said Bastien Mancini, CEO of Delair. “By combining Delair’s UAS know-how with Schaeffler’s manufacturing excellence and industrial scale, we are aiming to strengthen our production capability and accelerate delivery of advanced drone systems to our customers.”