Brits visiting the Paris Olympics this summer may find themselves being zapped by France’s anti-drone defence systems, in a huge embarrassment for President Macron.
The French capital is hosting the Olympics in July and will welcome tens of thousands of athletes and visitors to the Games.
Among them are expected to be some 500,000 British athletics’ fans, eager to catch glimpses of their stars and soak up the atmosphere of the sporting carnival.
French authorities are investing heavily in security, as fears of terrorist attacks grow as a result of geopolitical events.
Drone attacks are causing security officials particular concern, given they can be easily equipped with explosives.
One tempting target for would-be terrorists is the opening ceremony, during which Olympic officials plan to transport athletes down the Seine on boats with 326,000 people watching from the river banks.
As a result, Macron’s government has invested €350 million (£300m) in what was supposed to be a state-of-the-art anti-drone system, manufactured by the French company Thales.
Known as Parade, the drone defence system has proved less than a stellar success in trials, and may even pose a threat to unsuspecting tourists.
The system regularly confused the propellers of air conditioning units with drones, according to The Times.
It was also able to detect just one in three drones within a range of 800 metres in dense urban environments.
Thales insisted they would iron out the flaws in the system, which they described as being a normal part of the teething process.
In a statement, they said: “One of the aims of Parade is to provide an easy-to-use, high-performance anti-drone system.
“The system is based on the integration of several sensors and advanced processing algorithms developed by Thales and Sopra-CS.
“Given the stakes involved, it is normal that the development of these algorithms and the fine-tuning of these sensors is requiring some effort and time, but the most important thing is to be ready for the Olympic Games 2024 with a system that armed forces operators have fully adopted.”
The RAF has offered to provide French authorities drone jamming equipment as part of ongoing joint security measures between London and Paris.
A spokesman for the UK Ministry of Defence said: “We are working across Whitehall departments on providing UK support to the security operation for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
“Our specialist search dog units will assist with venue security and the RAF will offer equipment and personnel to help counter potential unauthorised drones.”
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