The French radar network consists up to date of 18 conventional radars. The PANTHERE (Projet ARAMIS Nouvelles Technologies en Hydrométéorologie Extension et REnouvellement) project aims at extending and upgrading the existing radar network. Over the period 2004 – 2006, 8 new C band Doppler radars will be deployed either to fill gaps within the current coverage or to replace old ones. In the same time, experimental work will be done on collaboration with research laboratories, to develop operational strategies to improve the hydrological measurement quality with these new radars, and also with existing ones. This will be done in three main directions : i) volumetric exploration tests to correct for VPR effects and to adapt the Z/R relationship ; ii) polarimetric measurements to correct for attenuation and improve the rain rate estimation. To do this, the first new radar will be equiped with dual-polarisation and a one-year campaign is planned to validate the rain rate improvement ; iii) Doppler measurements for an improved ground clutter identification and wind kinematics retrivals.