France’s prison service has awarded counter-drone contracts worth up to €34 million over four years. The award notice, published on 13 October, shows two winning offers that add up to about €12.5 million.
The buyer is the justice ministry’s prison directorate, and it split the work in two. Nuances Technologies won the main lot. It covers equipment that detects, identifies and neutralises drones, a system to supervise it, and installation, maintenance and training.
That lot can reach €31.5 million. Nuances, a small Paris company by the notice’s own classification, offered €11.4 million. The contract was signed on 24 September.
Ineo Infracom won the second lot, worth up to €2.5 million. It buys handheld drone detectors and portable jammers that staff carry. Its offer was €1.09 million, signed on 1 October.
Each lot drew eight bids. Both are frameworks, so the prison service can order against them for four years without a new competition. The notice does not say how many prisons they will cover.
The prison service counted 868 drone overflights or attempts in 2024, it told franceinfo last December, and about 5,000 so far in 2025. Franceinfo noted that more sensors also mean more drones get seen.
France has 187 prisons. In a written answer to the National Assembly published in May, the justice ministry said 62 had working systems in February 2026. It had ordered 78, and the last 16 are due by the end of 2026.
The last large contract of this kind went to CERBAIR and KEAS in February 2022. CERBAIR now says more than 40 French prisons use its systems.
