Does France have enough arms and ammunition?

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France 2

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B. Delombre, M. Dreujou, Z. Berkous, E. Jarlot – France 2

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Emmanuel Macron considered, Monday, June 13, that France has gone into a “war economy” since the start of the conflict in Ukraine. The country has supplied arms to the Ukrainians, but it cannot afford not to have up-to-date stocks of arms and ammunition.

They are artillery pieces of formidable efficiency. France has officially sent 12 copies to Ukraine. But didn’t these deliveries penalize the French army? Are Caesar guns also the symbol of the fragility of our arms industry? Currently, all Caesars are manufactured in the only cannon in France, located near Bourges (Cher). The Caesar is the factory’s flagship product. Each copy is sold 5 million euros and requires two years of manufacture.

The capacities of this state-of-the-art plant are still limited. Due to a lack of visibility, the company cannot massively invest in other assembly lines. Stocks are also limited. “We can make about a hundred guns a year”, explains Laurent Monzauge, director of the Nexter Bourges site. Especially since the future guns are not all intended for the French army. For the years to come, France has certainly ordered 39 Caesars, but Belgium, Denmark and the Czech Republic have also placed an order. Cut off from those delivered to Ukraine, our country would only have 64 Caesar guns today. It is too little for Jean-Louis Thiériot, deputy (LR) and member of the National Defense and Armed Forces Commission, who warns of the too low quantities of weapons in France.


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