Once is not custom, it is a Tuesday that the ministers met at the Elysée alongside Emmanuel Macron. Due to the President of the Republic’s trip to China, the weekly Council of Ministers has been brought forward by 24 hours.
While many topics were discussed, most of the meeting was devoted to the presentation of the future military programming law (LPM), acknowledged government spokesman Olivier Véran. The Minister for the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, took the floor to present the text made up of 36 articles to the press. We take stock of the main announcements.
A law articulated around “fundamentals”
This law, the concept of which dates back to the 1960s, defines the major orientations of French defense on a multi-annual basis: the one presented will cover the period 2024-2030.
The elements that guided this new law are “the fundamentals” recognized Sébastien Lecornu. First of them: nuclear deterrence. “A significant part of the budget is devoted to the modernization of the device” in a “particular context” underlined the minister, recalling that “we are not dependent on any other power”.
This new law also gives pride of place to pursuing the repair of the existing: “The reductions in credits (predecessors) have had effects, it can be seen on our infrastructures, on maintenance, on ammunition stocks. Since 2017, the decision has been taken to increase the credits, we can see the concrete translation of this on the ground now, but five years are not enough, it will take ten years”, summarized Sébastien Lecornu.
Intelligence is also claimed as a key point. “We now have sovereign means, but we have to move forward. The services will thus see their appropriations increase by 60%,” the minister announced.
Another change is the end of the reimbursement of “overpaid” pay for fallen soldiers. “I discovered when I arrived that when a soldier died on mission on the 15th of the month, his salary was paid in full and the administration asked for reimbursement of the overpayment from the family afterwards. So now, it goes without saying that a paid balance is acquired, ”reported Sébastien Lecornu, who evokes a new “family” plan to support relatives of soldiers.
A budget doubled
“The Armed Forces budget in 2017 was 32 billion euros. We propose to increase it to 69 billion in 2030, i.e. more than double”, the minister had insisted on Saturday with Le Parisien. By way of comparison, for the year 2023, the budget is 43.9 billion euros.
In total, the envelope devoted to the armed forces will amount to 413 billion euros over the period, including 13 billion in extrabudgetary revenue. The defense budget will be increased each year by 3 to 4 billion euros.
“There are several objectives with this unprecedented budget envelope: to continue to repair what has been damaged, a certain number of budget cuts have affected our army model (…) and we have a succession of threats which add up between them”, he underlined Tuesday morning on RTL. It is a question of “staying in the club of nations capable of protecting themselves”, he insisted.
The age limit for reservists pushed back
Currently between 62 and 65 depending on the case, the age limit for being a reservist in the armies will be raised to 70, the minister also announced.
“We are going to raise the age limits: from now on, you can be a reservist in the French armies up to 70 years old and up to 72 years old for certain specialist functions”, he declared on RTL.
The goal is to increase the number of reservists in the French army to 100,000, to reach a total strength of 300,000 soldiers, added Sébastien Lecornu after the Council of Ministers.
The successor to the Charles-de-Gaulle in project
The Charles-de-Gaulle aircraft carrier will have a successor, for the 2040s. Its design begins now for tests around 2036, said Sébastien Lecornu, who evokes “a jewel, a cathedral of technology”. “Five billion euros will be devoted to this new aircraft carrier, while credits remain allocated to the Charles-de-Gaulle aircraft carrier” at the same time.
“We will have to think about his morphology tomorrow. This new aircraft carrier will leave a much greater place for drones, because the war of tomorrow will be more electronic”.
“We need an aircraft carrier, a system of frigates, because we have a change in security threats at sea. The sea is a space of conflict as such”, declared the Minister of the Armed Forces, making reference to the leaks suffered by the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline after sabotage. The “symbolic name decision” should be made in 2025.
In Ukraine, continued support
Asked about French military aid to Ukraine, the minister said that “the Ukrainians are waiting for us on two fronts: the land segment, the ability to help them carry out effective counter-offensives in the weeks to come, and the ground-to-air defence, to protect the battlefield and major Ukrainian cities”.
In total, 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers will be trained by France by the summer, including 2,000 on French soil. The remaining 4,000 will be trained in Poland, in cooperation with Warsaw.