Proteus: the French Army revived old 20 mm guns to shoot down drones

The French Army has taken 20 mm anti-aircraft guns from the late 1970s out of storage, most of which were waiting to be scrapped, and turned them into the Proteus counter-drone system. Six Proteus systems already serve with the 35th Parachute Artillery Regiment (35e RAP), and an improved version is due by the end of 2026, as described by Terre Magazine, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces’ publication. The story was recently highlighted by Forum Militaire.

How it was built

The Proteus standard 1 was designed within a few months by the French Army’s Technical Section (STAT) and the counter-drone task force, in cooperation with the 35e RAP since the summer of 2024. Its basis is the 20 mm gun of the towed 53T2 anti-aircraft mount, designed by GIAT, the predecessor of today’s KNDS France. The gun was combined with the SANDRA thermal sight, derived from the Mistral surface-to-air systems and alternating night and day vision, and with a fire-control computer. The whole system is mounted on a TRM 2000 truck and can be set up in less than two minutes.

The crew is only two: the gun chief and the gunner, who engages the target from a CF20 tablet. According to Terre Magazine, the range is 500 metres against drones, 1,500 metres against helicopters and 2,000 metres against ground targets. The 35e RAP tested it on October 20, 2025 at the Canjuers range, where it shot down two drones.

A chain of three links

In the 35e RAP, Proteus is the last link of a three-stage system. A VAB armoured vehicle in the Arlad version detects the target with a Flir Systems radar at up to 2.5 kilometres. An operator with a Nerod jammer rifle, with a range of 3 kilometres, cuts the drone’s link to its operator, and if that is not enough, Proteus delivers the final blow. The choice of calibre is not accidental: the French Army holds large stocks of 20 mm explosive rounds, so the system depends neither on a new production line nor on expensive missiles.

What standard 2 brings

By the end of 2026, seven Proteus standard 2 will be delivered to various French Army units. The new version will have a new vehicle, Scania’s V3P, and fire-control software developed with the support of the ministry’s Defence Artificial Intelligence Agency (AMIAD), for better detection and prediction of drone trajectories. In February 2025, Opex360 wrote that the plan calls for at least 50 systems.

France is not the only country looking in its storage depots. Germany gave Ukraine its retired 35 mm Gepards, which proved among the most effective means against Shahed drones (Germany to supply Ukraine with 50 Gepard anti-aircraft systems), while Ukrainians and Russians are modernising Soviet ZSU-23-4 Shilkas. The same question, how to counter drone swarms cheaply, also occupies the Greek armed forces, as NemesisHD’s own proposal for an M113 fitted with the Centaur counter-drone system showed.