The subject of ammunition stocks and spare parts is a “difficulty point”, recognized in the Senate a French official.
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After long months of discretion and silence assumed on its arms deliveries to Ukraine, in particular linked to its diplomatic posture vis-à-vis Moscow, France has decided to start to publicly face the other Subject partly correlated to this sometimes complicated position to face the Anglo-Saxon bidding: that of its limited armaments stocks. An outing of the wood which was carefully entrusted to Joël Barre, the general delegate for armaments (DGA), as part of a hearing in the Senate, on May 4, whose report was published on May 30.
The subject of ammunition and spare parts “is one of the two difficulties on which we must continue to progress, in the light of the prospects for high intensity conflicts”, thus admitted, to Words counted, M. Barre, in front of parliamentarians. The other subject concerns “maintenance in operational condition [MCO]”, that is to say the availability of equipment, in particular fighter planes. A “first analysis” of this stock management took place, on April 7, as part of a steering committee where “several actions were decided”, revealed Mr. Barre.
During its hearing, the DGA did not make a direct link between the limited quantity of French weapons deliveries to Ukraine and this stock problem. But, as explained for several months, with covered words, a certain number of interlocutors of defense circles, the return of war in Europe has, de facto, put back on top of the pile this taboo subject within the armies . Subject to which the attention had already drawn, in February, a parliamentary report, detailing how France would not have the means to hold a high intensity conflict beyond a few days.
Peace rates
With its relatively delimited front line, the Ukrainian conflict has also come to shed light on a point of weakness in France: artillery. A segment that has been particularly abandoned in recent years. In general, France has always wanted to preserve an army model called “complete”. But, failing to have the budget of a country like the United States (around $ 700 billion, or 655 billion euros, against 40 billion euros for France), this choice led to limiting a certain number of equipment or armaments, and therefore to an army model sometimes qualified as “sample”.
Anxious to give wages, during his hearing, Mr. Barre nevertheless announced that the “conduct of ammunition stocks” would be one of the “entries” of the update of the military programming law (LPM ). This law, which plans military needs until 2025, is updated at the margin each year, generally before summer. Initially, 7 billion euros were planned for the regeneration of ammunition over the period 2019-2025 and some additional 110 million euros were redirected from 2021. It remains to know the amount of the effort envisaged this year: Mr. Barre did not specify it.
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