With the launch of Orange Drone Guardian, Orange wants to convert its telecom infrastructure into the capacity to protect sensitive sites.
The initiative comes in a context where drones are gradually establishing themselves as a risk vector for businesses and critical infrastructures. Tools for image capture, surveillance or disruption, these devices operate at low altitude, outside of traditional security devices. Industrial sites, logistics platforms, airports, ports or research centers are now faced with overflights whose frequency and trivialization call into question existing protection models.
It is in this context that Orange Business is positioning Drone Guardian, which primarily targets operators of vital importance, operators of essential services, public institutions and organizers of major events.
Rather than offering isolated equipment, Orange adopts a service approach. Drone Guardian is designed as a turnkey, end-to-end solution based on a subscription model.
Field feedback already seems to confirm the existence of a need, particularly from large manufacturers, public sector players and other organizations who notice drone flights near their installations.
On a technical level, Drone Guardian is based on sensors capable of detecting, identifying and classifying drones operating in low-altitude airspace. These sensors analyze in particular the beacons emitted by the devices in order to provide information such as their identity, their altitude or the location of the remote pilot. The announced range, between 6 and 20 kilometers, makes it possible to envisage coverage adapted to extended areas.
The specificity of the offer, however, lies in the complete chain which underlies this detection. The data collected passes via secure connectivity operated by Orange, then is processed in Cloud Avenue SecNum, a platform qualified SecNumCloud 3.2 by ANSSI. Supervision is provided continuously from a secure center located in France. This choice of an integrated chain, from the sensor to data processing, reflects a desire to control the entire cycle, in a logic of trust and sovereignty.
Orange mentions the possibility of integrating new sensors, other software bricks, as well as radio detection capabilities from 5G networks.
Beyond technology, it is the group’s existing infrastructure which constitutes a determining lever of this new offer. Orange relies on the network of its TowerCo TOTEM, which has around 19,700 sites. These high points allow sensors to be installed without requiring specific deployment for each customer. The group is thus transforming telecom assets into the basis of a new security capacity.
This approach significantly reduces deployment costs, and makes it possible to envisage progressive territorial coverage. Note that few players have a comparable network on a national scale.
The sensors used are supplied by Hologarde, a subsidiary of Groupe ADP specializing in anti-drone combat. Several deployments have already been carried out, notably in Val-de-Reuil and Toulouse, while a third is being installed in Brétigny-sur-Orge, on a base dedicated to drone flight tests. According to estimates cited by Le Monde, France has around 2,000 sensitive sites to secure, with a time horizon of 2.5 to 3 years to cover critical areas.
At this stage, Orange’s offering remains focused on detection and analysis. It does not include neutralization capabilities, which are the responsibility of other regulatory frameworks and specialized actors. This limitation does not prevent the group from positioning itself on a first layer of the defense chain.
This new offer is brought within the group by the former Innovation Advisor to the Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, Nassima Auvray, now Defense & Security Director of Orange Business, who on this subject declares in a press release: “I am proud to announce the launch of the first offer from the Defense & Security Department, Orange Drone Guardian. This solution, a pioneer in France and Europe, meets the challenges of protecting sensitive sites of our customers: sovereign infrastructures, incremental and open model, all offered “as a Service”. All the power of this solution is based on our capacity for innovation and our multidisciplinary expertise. »
With Drone Guardian, Orange extends its role as operator beyond connectivity, by mobilizing its infrastructure to meet a growing need for protection of sensitive sites. The group no longer positions itself solely as a data carrier, but as an actor capable of orchestrating security services backed by its networks and its operating capabilities.
