PARIS --- Deterrence, partnerships, high intensity… Presenting his New Year’s greetings to the armed forces, the President of the Republic on Friday (January 20) unveiled the main lines of the future military programming law (LPM) 2024-2030. With a budget of 413 billion euros, it aims to "transform" the armed forces through four pivots.
This year, the President’s New Year greetings to the armed forces took on a particular dimension, placed under the sign of their "transformation". During his speech, delivered at Air Base 118 in Mont-de-Marsan, Emmanuel Macron presented the main lines of the new LPM 2024-2030, which will replace the current LPM 2019-2025 which had already been marked by a significant “repair” effort.
"The military programming law reflects the country's efforts in favor of its armed forces" and "these efforts will be proportionate to the dangers, that is to say considerable," the President said. The services will therefore have a total budget of 413 billion euros between 2024 and 2030, i.e. a third more than the previous LPM (295 billion euros). This massive financial effort must allow us "to be one war in advance" and to "be ready for more brutal, more numerous and more ambiguous wars at the same time."
"After having repaired the armies, we are going to transform them" because "we must do better and differently", the President emphasized, insisting on the term "transformation".
Four pivots
For President Emmanuel Macron, this transformation must be organized around four pivots.
Pivot 1: strengthening our deterrence
In order to ensure our sovereignty, the Head of State is counting on the strengthening of our deterrence. “Deterrence is an element that makes France a different country in Europe. We measure again, by analyzing the war in Ukraine, its vital importance. It deserves the considerable efforts that we devote to it,” he says.
This sovereignty notably involves the strengthening of permanent postures. "This presupposes increased intelligence capabilities which enable us to anticipate crises or threats", said the Head of State, announcing the massive increase" of intelligence budgets by nearly 60% in total, with, between others, the doubling of the budget of the DRM2 and the DRSD3”.
In order to ensure our capacity for resilience and more particularly in the field of cyber, Emmanuel Macron intends to "double our capacity to deal with major cyber attacks". To achieve a more general resilience of the country, he also wishes to eventually double "the operational reserve (note: approximately 100,000 people), which will strengthen our active army and the rise of new reservist units" .
Pivot 2: preparation for high intensity
For Emmanuel Macron, the pivot towards high intensity is illustrated by our ability to "go from a model made to ensure operations in environments where our freedom of action was strong, to an ability to evolve in contested environments. (…) We must be able to act faster, to be more reactive, by strengthening the national emergency level and thus have the means necessary for an intervention on short notice, even far from mainland France."
To fill our gaps, it is necessary, according to the president, to "resolutely enhance operational preparation, strengthen the availability of equipment" or even adapt to the intensity of the threat in order to "think and build up accordingly our ammunition stocks, our logistics, our support" Another axis: "Combining military effects, thanks to the digitization of the battlefield", which notably involves collaborative combat, like the Scorpion land system or the future combat aircraft (SCAF in French).
Pivot 3: protecting our interests in common areas
Here, the Head of State intends to strengthen "our ability to monitor and react, but also to take the initiative, to pass on clear strategic messages" in several spaces: exo-atmospheric space, cyber space and maritime areas. For the latter, Emmanuel Macron, recalling that France has the world’s second-largest Exclusive Economic Zone thanks to its Overseas Territories, said that this "represents an immense asset" but also "an immense responsibility, including at the scale of the environmental and climate issues, the protection of certain infrastructures and our territories.”
The president thus wants to "acquire a capacity to control the seabed up to a depth of 6,000 meters, for military reasons but also for the protection of our underwater infrastructures.
Pivot 4: strengthening international partnerships
In this desire to transform the services, the president said that our international partnerships "can only be considered, first within the framework of Europe" because our security depends on that of our neighbours. He thus intends to emphasize the "interoperability and of course the common strategic culture," a priority of the Strategic Compass adopted in March 2022.
Emmanuel Macron notably mentioned certain partnerships set up in recent years, "from the constitution from a European Defense Fund, to structured cooperation, to the European Intervention Initiative, to unprecedented operations such as Takuba, also including bilateral partnerships such as the CaMo [agreement] with Belgium.”
More broadly, according to Emmanuel Macron, France must be able to "assume all its responsibilities in Europe and beyond", while remaining a "reliable ally" of NATO. "We must be able to act with the Europeans, inside NATO or outside the Alliance, and if necessary ensure the command capabilities that will allow us to carry out a large-scale operation together." For the Head of State, this implies being able to deploy, within a European framework, with or without NATO, a joint capability representing up to 20,000 men.
Notes:
1. On this base are deployed two Rafale squadrons whose personnel has been called upon since last year to preserve European airspace in the context of the conflict in Ukraine.
2. Directorate of Military Intelligence
3. Directorate of Defense Intelligence and Security
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