The French defence procurement agency Direction générale de l'armement (DGA) has ordered 3,000 multispectral camouflage nets from Saab. The nets are from the company's Barracuda camouflage system and will be produced by Solarmtex S.A.S in central France, according to a press release from the DGA.
The Barracuda system conceals not only visual signatures but also heat signatures from infrared optics. It has long been in use within the Swedish Armed Forces (Försvarsmakten), and the vehicles that Sweden donated to Ukraine, such as the Combat Vehicle 90 (CV90), the Leopard 2 (Stridsvagn 122), and the Archer artillery system, were also equipped with the camouflage system from Saab Barracuda.
Combat Vehicle 90 equipped with camouflage netting from Saab Barracuda. Photo: Swedish Armed Forces
In an interview with a Ukrainian CV90 crew on the front line, they praised, among other things, the capability of the netting. According to the crew, the camouflage makes the entire vehicle appear as a switched-off car when viewed through a thermal camera.
According to the DGA, the order value amounts to 20 million euros and will be delivered to the French Army and Air and Space Force between 2024 and 2026. The nets come in three different sizes and four variants: Northern Europe, Southern Europe, desert, and winter.
Saab entered into a cooperation agreement with Solartex in October 2021. The agreement includes, among other things, a distribution arrangement under which Solartex acts as a reseller of the camouflage system in France. Manufacturing and assembly of the camouflage systems will be carried out in a factory constructed specifically for this purpose.
In January 2022, Saab entered into a framework agreement with the DGA covering Barracuda nets over an eight-year period. According to the DGA, the current order is the result of two years of cooperation between Saab, the DGA, and the French Army's technical section. The nets will be used to conceal command posts and vehicle groupings.