{"id":37589,"date":"2026-06-18T12:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/37589\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T12:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:55:07","slug":"carmaker-renault-teams-with-thales-on-4troop-military-vehicle-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/37589\/","title":{"rendered":"Carmaker Renault teams with Thales on ‘4Troop’ military vehicle design"},"content":{"rendered":"

PARIS \u2014 As European carmakers<\/a> explore whether to take on new defense-related opportunities amid soaring weapons demand across the region, French carmaker Renault and defense firm Thales unveiled a 4\u00d74 prototype of the multirole civilian military vehicle (VCMR) at Eurosatory this week, positioning it as a solution to meet potential future land forces requirements.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The vehicle, based on a coupe SUV that has been in production since 2024, and on display here coated in a military beige exterior, can be used to support drone operations.<\/p>\n

Marc Dehondt, Thales\u2019 Advanced Studies Manager, told Breaking Defense that Thales called on Renault to collaborate on 4Troop, for its industrial know-how and capacity for producing large quantities of vehicles, fast.\u00a0The need for urgency appears to also align with national threat assessments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFrance fears we might see high intensity combat on its territory and to prepare for this possibility we need to be ready,\u201d Dehondt added.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Part of this preparation involves what the French term \u201cmassification,\u201d based on increasing the numbers of materiel in the armed forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne area where we need to massify is human resources,\u201d Dehondt explained, \u201cand we will do that by using our reserve forces.\u201d In France former military personnel can be called up at any time and at any notice for three years after they have left the armed forces. \u201cWe will need large quantities of equipment for these forces and we\u2019ll need them fast. Which industry can do so? The automobile industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Renault produces around 1.2 million cars a year worldwide (508,000 in France alone in 2025) so it is the company\u2019s manufacturing processes and industrial strength that caught the interest of Thales.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe in Thales handle the capacities for treating data and the tactical hub in the vehicle,\u201d Dehondt explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 4Troop concept could be adapted to almost any vehicle in Renault\u2019s portfolio, Dehondt said. For example the Renault Master, a utility vehicle, can quickly become a command vehicle. The only modification to the vehicle at the show was the roof-rack, which includes electric sockets so that electrical equipment in the field can be charged. Cars are offered with different engine options so Dehondt said \u201cthe engine would be chosen to best meet the mission the car is needed for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea is that a single militarized vehicle would never operate on its own but in network, not only with other 4Troops but within the Scorpion bubble. France\u2019s Scorpion program is designed to replace and modernize by 2030 the close combat capabilities of the army. It is centered on new vehicles which can operate collaboratively using a single combat information system.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Renault at Eurosatory told Breaking Defense that \u201cwhat defense industries are looking for is our capacity to produce quickly and within controlled costs. But we have four requirements to enter into this kind of partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n

The parameters include exclusively working on the \u201ccivilian part\u201d of the vehicle and always under the aegis of the DGA [the French procurement agency], as well as following a \u201cmade in France\u201d policy.<\/p>\n

For the time being Renault is involved in three French military programs: 4Troops, a long-range drone in partnership with Turgis Gaillard and the Toutatis loitering munition in partnership with Thales. Although no specific program or partnership has been entered into, the company is looking into developing unmanned ground vehicles for the military market.<\/p>\n

Cecilia Aguero, Thales director of drones systems, told Breaking Defense the Toutatis, with a 10km-range was \u201cdesigned for high-intensity warfare to neutralize light armored vehicles.\u201d Renault will manufacture 10,000 of these drones a year \u201cand given that the drone is destroyed when it\u2019s deployed we obviously wanted something inexpensive to produce, hence our partnership with Renault.\u201d<\/p>\n

She explained that Renault had, for example, cut the number of small screws used to build the platform by 40 percent. \u201cOverall they divided the design-to-manufacture costs by three.\u201d She also underlined that Renault will only be manufacturing the platform \u201cwhilst the software and warhead are made by Thales.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toutatis will be equipped with automatic target recognition but always maintaining a man-in-the-loop for final target acquisition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough this collaboration, production of loitering munition could begin as early as 2027,with a manufacturing capacity of 1,000 units per month from the first year, marking a significant ramp-up in France\u2019s industrial capaicities in this strategic field,\u201d per the company.<\/p>\n

Fran\u00e7ois Provost, CEO of Renault Group, who had a first-hand look at 4Troop this week, said the partnership with Thales \u201cmakes a tangible contribution to the initiatives undertaken with the French Ministry of the Armed Forces and strenghens both French and European defense capaibilities.\u201d Similarly, Patrice Caine, chairman and CEO of Thales, added that \u201cthis partnership addresses the needs of the armed forces while meeting the requirements of the wartime economy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS \u2014 As European carmakers explore whether to take on new defense-related opportunities amid soaring weapons demand across…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13059],"tags":[3669,73,24470,5,2817,12198,5719],"class_list":["post-37589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-thales","tag-army","tag-europe","tag-eurosatory-2026","tag-france","tag-global","tag-renault","tag-thales"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}