At Renault's Le Mans factory, on the automated car chassis line, November 20, 2025. THOMAS BRÉGARDIS/« OUEST-FRANCE »/MAXPPP
Around 100 trucks have taken turns, in recent weeks, emptying materials for building "JJ" at Renault's Le Mans chassis plant. After some renovation and securing work, this former 5,000-square-meter warehouse will come back to life: It will house the assembly line for Chorus, a defense drone developed by the automaker in partnership with the aeronautics company Turgis Gaillard. The first prototypes are scheduled to leave the workshop this summer for testing in September. "The line should be operational by the end of 2026," a Renault spokesperson told Le Monde.
Though Renault has produced military equipment in the past, notably through its former subsidiary Renault Trucks Defense, which was sold to Volvo in 2001, the auto group had not planned a return to the defense sector. It was at the urging of Sébastien Lecornu, who served as minister of the Armed Forces until his first appointment as prime minister in September 2025 and was keen to involve the civilian industry in rearmament efforts, that Renault ultimately accepted the idea of a comeback.
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