France’s Rodeur 330 long-range loitering munition widens 500 km deep strike options.

France is advancing its Larinae remotely operated munition family with the Rodeur 330, a 500-kilometer range loitering munition presented during a Franco-Ukrainian drone forum at the Élysée Palace. The system gives European forces a low-cost way to saturate defenses and hit command posts, air defenses, and logistics nodes in depth, tightening the technology gap with Russian and Iranian-style drone swarms.

France is quietly putting real range behind its deep strike doctrine. Building on the Veloce 330 medium-range loitering munition now entering structured trials with the French armed forces, Paris is backing a longer-range variant, Rodeur 330, developed by EOS Technologie and evaluated in November 2025 during a Franco-Ukrainian drone forum at the Élysée Palace. Designed around the same 3.3-meter fixed-wing airframe but powered by a piston engine instead of a turbine, Rodeur 330 is pitched by the company as a low-cost, long-endurance effector that can loiter for up to five hours and deliver a 4-kilogram warhead on targets out to roughly 500 kilometers.
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The Rodeur 330 uses the same general architecture as Veloce but replaces the turbine with a piston engine to favor endurance and range over peak speed (Picture source: Eos Technologie )

Within the Larinae call for projects, the Veloce 330 remotely operated munition constitutes the first stage of this build up. EOS Technologie designs it with KNDS France as a fixed-wing loitering munition powered by a small turbine, able to dive on a target located about one hundred kilometers away at more than 400 km/h in the terminal phase. It carries a 2.5 kg warhead derived from the BONUS artillery shell, optimized for top attack against tanks and combat vehicles, while keeping a weight and signature compatible with forward deployment. Navigation relies on a solution developed by TRAAK, designed to remain reliable in contested environments when Global Positioning System (GPS) signals are jammed or degraded. A first batch of seventeen Veloce 330 rounds is delivered to the three French services, marking the shift from simple technology demonstration to the start of a structured test campaign, directly tied to the requirements expressed by the French high command.

The Rodeur 330 uses the same general architecture as Veloce but replaces the turbine with a piston engine to favor endurance and range over peak speed. According to manufacturer data, the air vehicle has a range of 500 km, an endurance of five hours at around 100 to 120 km/h, and an operational ceiling of up to 5,000 m. Its maximum take-off weight is 25 kg for a wingspan of 3.30 m, with the warhead mass increased to 4 kg. Under this relatively compact airframe sit specific aerodynamic parameters, with a stall speed of about 80 km/h and a stabilized cruise speed of 120 km/h, which simplifies transit and target search phases. The Rodeur 330 also claims SAIL II certification, which frames its use in controlled risk scenarios, in particular for flights over populated areas or critical infrastructure.

The system is designed for a light logistics footprint. The manufacturer states that the air vehicle can be assembled in less than ten minutes by two operators, including about three minutes of actual assembly, before catapult launch from a simple prepared area. The standard pack includes a ground control station stored in a flight case approximately 1.55 m by 0.85 m, one Rodeur 330, two rugged laptops of the GETAC V110 type, two control gamepads, one radio device, two battery chargers, one antenna tripod, and a set of antennas for various ranges. Flight paths can be defined by programmed waypoints, with a racetrack mode to patrol over an area of interest and automatic guidance to the target using an embedded metric precision terminal guidance system. Training is also sized for a rapid build-up: one week for operators and one week for maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO), which opens the way to wide deployment in maneuver or artillery units.

At the tactical level, the Veloce 330 – Rodeur 330 pairing makes it possible to build a genuine layered deep strike architecture. Remotely operated munitions complement tube artillery, rocket systems, and cruise missiles by filling the gap between counter battery fires at a few dozen kilometers and strategic strikes beyond 300 km. Waves of faster Veloce 330 configured for the destruction of short-range surface-to-air systems can be used first to prompt the adversary to activate radars and air defenses, while swarms of Rodeur 330, with up to thirty air vehicles controlled by a single ground station, remain on standby at altitude before diving on exposed command posts, logistics depots, or batteries.

In emission control (EMCON) mode, the combination of preprogrammed routes, autonomous terminal guidance, and controlled use of data links limits vulnerability to electronic warfare. Fitted with an optronic turret and reusable when the warhead is not employed, these munitions also provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities to command and control (C2) networks, feeding a recognized maritime picture/recognized ground picture (RMP) and a common operational picture (COP) shared at corps or theater level.

For France, the development of the Rodeur 330 shows that long-range remotely operated munitions are now embedded in European thinking on high-intensity warfare and strategic depth. Possible trials together with Ukrainian forces would provide an operational test environment, in a battlespace already saturated with Iranian drones and systems originating from the Western defense industrial base, and would help validate in real conditions capability choices that directly concern the French defense industrial and technological base (BITD).

At the same time, this type of system requires adjustments in deterrence concepts and collective defense planning within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), by integrating sustained loitering munition campaigns at the operational level. The spread of systems able to strike at 500 km, with relatively low unit cost and a reduced logistics footprint, alters the notion of sanctuary, forces exposed states to rethink the protection of critical infrastructure, and raises new questions about escalation management in wars of attrition where urban and industrial centers become more vulnerable to swarms of armed systems of this kind.