Sébastien Lecornu, the French Minister for the Armed Forces has signed a framework agreement with Bruno Even, CEO of Airbus Helicopters and Marie-Laure Bourgeois, Executive Vice President Sales & Marketing of Naval Group for the future acquisition of the Systèmes de Drone Aérien pour la Marine (SDAM: uncrewed aerial systems for the Navy). The agreement also paves the way for cooperation with other nations via government to government agreements. 

Each SDAM will feature an Airbus VSR-700 Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS), operated with Naval Group's Steeris Mission System. Naval Group is also responsible for integrating the SDAMs onto French Navy frigates. As a result of 15 years of R&D experimentation and development, Steeris MS is a sea proven solution designed for naval combat system integration. 

The framework agreement lays the groundwork for inclusion of further partner Nations into the programme. Other Nations across the world have been officially invited by the French Armament General Directorate (DGA) to join the programme. Through a government to government contract they will be able to order the system in a configuration similar to the one selected by the DGA for the French Navy. 

The serial VSR-700s that will be delivered to the French Navy will be equipped for surveillance and intelligence missions, like its prototypes that have been tested so far to develop the SDAM. This configuration includes a radar, an electro-optical system and an Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver. The VSR-700 has been developed to both take off and land automatically from a navy vessel in rough sea conditions, in a dense electromagnetic environment while carrying three sensors and flying for more than eight hours.