Direction Générale de l'Armement

The Direction Générale de l'Armement (DGA) ran the competitive evaluation that selected Origin Robotics' BLAZE drone interceptor for the French Armed Forces, with the contract signed at Eurosatory on 17 June 2026. The DGA's selection made France the fourth European operator of BLAZE after Latvia, Belgium, and Estonia, and routed the supply through French integrator DSV to satisfy industrial-sovereignty requirements. On the same day, the DGA signed the A400M Parallel Mission System contract with Airbus Defence and Space via OCCAR, equipping 20 A400M transports with ISR and command-and-control capability for installation in 2027 and flight test in 2028.

Established in 1961 under the French Ministry of Armed Forces, the DGA manages the full lifecycle of French defence procurement: requirement definition, programme management, acceptance testing, and export coordination. It oversees engineering schools including the École polytechnique, ENSTA ParisTech, and Supaéro, and employs a specialist corps of INGénieurs de l'armement. Its annual budget runs to tens of billions of euros; the French military programme law for 2024-2030 allocates €413 billion in total defence spending, of which equipment procurement is a major share.

The DGA sits at the intersection of French industrial policy and NATO interoperability. Its procurement decisions shape the European defence-industrial base by determining which systems enter French service and, by extension, which suppliers win export credibility across Allied Nations. The BLAZE and A400M contracts at Eurosatory 2026 signal a French shift toward commercially available European drone systems alongside bespoke programmes.