France to purchase drones from Israel, US

France is in talks with the United States and Israel to buy intelligence-gathering drones to build up a modern fleet, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Sunday.

France's existing hardware is outdated and its military intervention in Mali this year has exposed its shortage of surveillance drones suitable for modern warfare. "We need this capacity in the short term. There are currently two countries in the world that build drones, the United States and Israel," Le Drian said on TV channel iTele. (Reuters)