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With the return of war to European soil, the prospect of France engaging in a long-term conflict is no longer a hypothesis to be taken lightly. In any case, this is the opinion of several LR parliamentarians, including the chairman of the Senate Defense Committee, who were worried this Saturday about the level of French ammunition stocks.
“The Russians themselves are starting to struggle on certain ammunition. All countries face this. You have to know how to go from peacetime to wartime, we haven’t done it for 75 years, ”said Christian Cambon, chairman of the Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces Committee, to CNews-Europe 1. of the Senate. However, “we do not have sufficient ammunition for a very long conflict”, according to him.
“In the space of a month, we have completely changed the era,” argues Christian Cambon. According to him, before the elections, “all the government parties must commit to strengthening the training of our armed forces” and to “shorten the delivery time” of ammunition. According to him, it would currently take three years to receive a missile after it was ordered.
In a letter to the Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly, the deputies Julien Aubert, Bernard Bouley, Claude de Ganay and Laurence Trastour-Isnart also underline that France could run out of ammunition “in just four days of high intensity conflict”. “What measures have you taken to prepare our armies? they ask.
7 billion allocated to ammunition
“The Military Programming Law has well anticipated the necessary regeneration of our ammunition. The proof in figures: 7 billion euros allocated to ammunition over the period 2019-2025”, replied on Twitter, the Spokesman of the Ministry of the Armed Forces Hervé Grandjean, adding that an investment of 110 million additional euros was program.
“The French armies would only last a few days in the event of a conflict? But against whom? On what ground? Under what scenario? “, he questioned, recalling that France had “the habit and the will to act in coalition”.
In a report at the end of February, before the start of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the deputies Patricia Mirallès (LREM) and Jean-Louis Thiériot (LR) already recommended an “immediate financial effort” for the reconstitution of stocks of ammunition, which sometimes takes a long time to manufacture. More generally, the increase in the defense effort must be continued and accentuated, in the face of the risk of major conflict, they pleaded.
Emmanuel Macron began in 2017 a sharp rise in defense credits after years of scarcity. The budget of the Ministry of the Armed Forces will increase again in 2022, to 40.9 billion euros, in accordance with the Military Programming Law (LPM) 2019-2025.