PARIS --- As France seeks to move to a “war economy,” the Ministry of the Armed Forces has commissioned two fact-finding missions aimed at speeding up production of the Caesar artillery, the Mistral short-range surface-to-air missile, and 155 mm artillery shells, Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu said at a Feb. 22 news conference here.
Two fact-finding missions
One mission, headed by Monique Legrand-Larroche, a senior officer of the Directorate General for Armaments (DGA), will address ways to help Ukraine in the production and support of Caesar artillery, the minister said. That mission will span the full range, from the supply of raw materials to managing the supply chain.
France has sent 18 Caesar Mk1 self-propelled 155mm howitzers to the Ukrainian forces, and has ordered the same number from Nexter to replace them for the French army. The service had a total of 76 Caesar, the daily Le Monde reported. In the past year, One of the Caesar guns operated by the Ukrainian army was hit by a Russian loitering munition last November, social media shows.
The Caesar also has had success in the export market, the minister said. Nexter won orders for 55 Caesar from four client nations last year, making 2022 a record year for the artillery, the company said Jan. 13.
Laurent Collet-Billon, a former DGA head, has been commissioned to the second information mission, namely industry moves to accelerate production, particularly for the Mistral man-portable air-defense system and 155 mm artillery shells, the minister said.
MBDA, an international group with operations in Britain, France, Germany and Italy, has been asked for proposals for faster production. One example was a request to halve the production lead times to build Aster surface-to-air missiles from the current 40 months to 18 months.
The Mistral very short-range air-defense missile, seen here deployed at the Kourou space launch center in French Guiana, is one of the weapon systems whose production rate is being boosted in light of the lessons of the war in Ukraine. (French Army photo)
MBDA produced 20 Mistrals in 2022, and the aim is to increase to 30 units this year, and hit a target of 40 in 2025, the minister said.
The two mission reports are due to be delivered in a month’s time.
France to expand production of artillery propellants
Meanwhile, Eurenco, a state-owned manufacturer of military explosives, is relocating production of propellant for large-caliber shells to its Bergerac plant, southwest France, Lecornu also told journalists at a press conference billed as War Economy Phase II: Action Plan for Munitions.
That relocation by Eurenco was a move to boost “sovereignty and strategic autonomy,” pointing up the importance of the supply chain of explosives and propellants, he said. The total investment was €60 million ($53 million), of which €50 million was from the company’s own funds.
The expanded Bergerac factory will produce 1,200 tons of propellant in the first half of 2025, Lecornu said, and will meet the needs of France and allies. That amount of propellant will allow production of 500,000 shells with modular charges.
The present Bergerac factory is expected to post 2023 sales of more than €100 million, compared to 2022 sales of less than €100 million, Eurenco executive chairman Thierry Francou said after the news conference.
Eurenco expects 2023 total sales for €400 million and has a target of €500 million for 2025, and had 2022 sales of €300 million, he said. Exports account for two thirds of sales, with domestic sales in France, Belgium, and Sweden accounting for a third. Military sales account for two thirds, and civil for a third.
Heavy ammunition stocks in Europe have been shown by the war in Ukraine to be far smaller than necessary, and governments are reviewing their inventories and boosting production of complete munitions or their components, as France's Eurenco is doing for large-calibre propellants. (Eurenco photo)
Export clients for military use in Europe include Britain, Germany, and Italy, while the U.S. is an export customer. The order book is full to 2027.
The intensity of the war in Ukraine has shown the need for Western allies to boost production of shells and other munitions, not only to meet needs of Kyiv, but also to strengthen their own ammunition stocks.
Additional help for SMEs
Lecornu also called for a “more patriotic finance” from commercial banks, particularly for small and medium-sized companies. While the heads of banks in Paris are open to discussing weapons projects, small or medium companies in the regions found it hard to raise funds.
The commissioning of the two mission reports show the Ukraine war is going to last some time, said defence analyst Marc Chassillan.
The two missions also indicate that France wants to deliver more weapons to Ukrainian forces, and to raise stocks for the French services, he said. The authorities need to know what needs to change in the supply chain for the two weapons, Caesar howitzers and the Mistral missile.
“The Caesar and Mistral are the most modern, effective and useful French weapons for the Ukrainian forces,” he said.
Speeding up production lies not just in the hands of the prime contractor but throughout the supply chain, with small and medium companies at tier three and four, where the lack of a minor component or a chip can act as bottlenecks, he said.
Shift to war economy taking time
The government has yet to place large orders for munitions and weapons since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year, spurring president Emmanuel Macron to say last June France was entering “a war economy.”
The orders for munitions are expected to be ultimately worth billions of euros but they must wait for the draft 2024-2030 military budget law of €413 billion to work its way through parliamentary review and enactment. The multi-year budget is expected to be presented to the government cabinet late March or early April, with adoption into law in time for the July 14 Bastille Day national holiday. That draft law budgets a third more money than the €295 billion in the present 2019-2025 multi-year budget.
"A war economy without orders is not a war economy,” Chassillan said. Some production lines are capable of increasing output, all they are waiting for is the government order.
Europe-wide initiative
In the U.K., defence minister Ben Wallace said Feb. 22 Britain has started to “warm up” production lines to replace weapons sent to Ukraine, and boost production of artillery shells to help Ukrainian forces, Reuters reported.
EXCLUSIVE: The UK is reviewing the size of its ammunition stockpiles, @SkyNews can reveal. Russia's invasion of Ukraine exposed how past assumptions on what would be needed to fight a war were far too small, Whitehall and defence industry sources say.
1/https://t.co/DtWcJfXYW2— Deborah Haynes (@haynesdeborah) February 23, 2023
Meanwhile, the European Union seeks to work with the arms industry to speed up and increase production of ammunition to help Ukraine and to boost domestic stocks, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Feb. 18 at the Munich Security Conference, Reuters reported.
“We could think of, for example, advanced purchase agreements that give the defence industry the possibility to invest in production lines now to be faster and to increase the amount they can deliver,” she said.
There was urgency in producing ammunition and sending it over to Kyiv. “It is now the time, really, to speed up the production, and to scale up the production of standardized products that Ukraine needs desperately, for example standardized ammunition,” she said.
About the author: Pierre Tran is a defense journalist, a contributor to Second Line of Defense, and has worked for the Reuters news agency and Defense News.
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