French Army 1st Artillery Regiment

Speaking to the National Assembly on 14 October 2026, Army chief of staff General Jacques de Montgros said the 1st Artillery Regiment would stand up a battery armed with long-range loitering munitions, without naming the type. It is meant to hold the line until Thundart, the MBDA-Safran rocket system picked by the DGA, replaces the unit's worn LRU launchers. That week the DGA also took up an option for more Damocles munitions from KNDS and Delair.

The regiment traces its lineage to 1671 and is nicknamed Royal Artillerie. It is garrisoned at the Quartier Ailleret in Bourogne, near Belfort, under the 19th Artillery Brigade, and operates France's last nine LRU rocket launchers.

Montgros expects a temporary loss of capability between 2027 and 2030, which he calls a "temporary reduction" rather than a rupture, and says Thundart deliveries cannot be allowed to slip. A first tranche of 13 Thundart launchers is under way, and the military programming law plans 26 systems by 2030. The stopgap shows the French Army buying loitering munitions now rather than waiting for its preferred long-range system.