Helping to protect the skies over the Paris Olympics

The Olympic Games is the event that brings the world together every four years, with spectators across the planet closely watching the performances of our top athletes. Unfortunately, the event’s high profile also makes it an attractive target for groups and individuals who want to cause disturbances and chaos. Effective security is needed to prevent such forces from threatening lives and drawing attention away from the friendly competition taking place.

Saab is proud to have delivered two Giraffe 1X radar solutions to the French Air Force for use in central Paris and the second largest city in France, Marseille, for the duration of both the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. The Giraffe systems provided French armed forces with aerial situational awareness throughout the events, helping them to track both authorised and unauthorised aerial movements. The sensitivity of Giraffe 1X radars means they are able to clearly detect all aerial platforms and distinguish between birds and small UAVs – a crucial capability at a time when drones are cheap, widely available and increasingly being weaponised.

“We were honoured to be part of the Paris Olympics with Giraffe 1X, a system that we started to introduce here in France five years ago,” said Camille Pertusot, Head of Saab France. “Giraffe 1X has been evaluated in different areas by both the Air Force and the Army, and we saw it in action in Paris and Marseille during the summer.”

Sophisticated strategy to address threats

In Paris, the Giraffe 1X system provided data on movements over the entire greater metropolitan area, covering the skies over the Trocadéro and Champ de Mars, plus key venues such as Roland-Garros Stadium, Parc des Princes, Paris La Défense Arena and Stade de France. The system’s reach meant that it could clearly observe all take-offs and landings at nearby airports including Paris Orly and Charles De Gaulle. The Paris system also remained operational throughout the Champions Parade, a celebration of French athletes and volunteers held on the Champs-Élysées after both Games were completed.

French authorities used the two Giraffe 1X radars in combination with a range of other defence measures, including multiple ground-to-air missile systems, jet fighters and attack helicopters, according to the French Ministry of the Armed Forces. While, thankfully, no serious incidents were reported, armed forces were kept busy investigating and neutralising potential aerial threats. Nearly 150 drone pilots were arrested during the Olympic and Paralympic Games for breaching no-fly zones, while there were more than 180 aerial interceptions by fighters and helicopters in the same period. 

Lifted by helicopter along the Seine

Getting the Giraffe 1X radar in place prior to the Games required close collaboration between Saab and French authorities. The roof of a 31-storey residential skyscraper about one kilometre south-west of the Eiffel Tower was scouted as a suitable location. A French Air Force Super Puma helicopter was then used to transfer a 450-kilogram package containing the 150-kilogram compact radar plus various mounts and support equipment from a staging point in a Parisian park to the top of the skyscraper. To reduce the risk to the public, the helicopter travelled up the Seine, with two bridges across the river closed for the duration of the operation. Dozens of police officers on the ground controlled the public and traffic.

The system was tested together with the customer and made fully operational nearly two weeks before the start of the Paris Olympic Games on July 26. It stayed to assist in delivering aerial situational awareness until mid-September.

Giraffe’s proven capability for large events

While the French Air Force uses other members of the Saab Giraffe family, bringing in Giraffe 1X units enhanced their capability. Some of the advantages of the Giraffe 1X include an automatic tracking functionality that provides quick and reliable feedback to the operator. The system covers the entire search volume every second, and is able to detect fixed and rotary wing targets, fast missiles and RAM targets as well as small UAVs in high-clutter environments.

-The robustness of the CUAS device deployed to protect the Olympic and Paralympic games relied on the complementarity of the different detection systems. It was efficientely completed by Giraffe 1X radar to increase the stretch, said Brigadier General Arnaud Bourguignon, Project Manager for aerial and anti-drone protection for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Paris Olympic Games were not the first where radar from the Saab Giraffe family was used to help secure the skies above events. At the London 2012 Olympics, British security and defence forces asked their Swedish colleagues to operate a Giraffe AMB 3D radar system to help maintain security. Installed on a rocky mound near the River Thames and five miles from central London, the advanced radar system in operation 24/7.