The French newspaper "Le Figaro" said that the war in Ukraine and the lack of weapons that France delivered to Kiev have highlighted the insufficiency of French reserves, to repeat the same tone that said with the emergence of Corona that the French health system does not have the necessary stocks of masks, now saying that France does not have the stocks necessary to wage a very intense war similar to the one currently taking place in eastern Europe.
Le Figaro's investigation, in an article by Artur Begotta, revealed the existence of a French army with limited ammunition and equipment and inadequately equipped for this type of warfare, a situation that a recent parliamentary report considers untenable, neither in terms of the current strategic context nor in terms of France's military ambitions, and it may explain France's limited assistance to Kiev compared to its close European neighbors.
The weakest artillery in the European Union
If we represent the guns of Caesar, the symbol of French military support for Kiev - as the writer says - we will find that their number before the start of the war was 76, of which 30 were delivered to Ukraine, and this means that the French reserve of them is only 46, and means that there is a significant corrosion in both men and equipment, and researcher Leo Perea Binet of the French International Institute says that "our army has the weakest artillery in the European Union, compared to the French military weight on the continent."
Poland, which has ordered 672 self-propelled howitzers from South Korea and will receive 18 howitzers from Washington, will be a military giant and the EU's first army, ahead of French artillery and its "dwarf" army. "If we had to go to war right now, it would be with less than 40 artillery pieces available and 100 workable Leclerc tanks," says the researcher, with an equally worrying stockpile of ammunition.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its massive consumption have highlighted "the inadequacy of French operational fleets that have been reduced to a minimum after two decades of scarcity," so that Paris has remained completely dependent on its allies, as in Libya when the United States and Britain were begging for laser-guided munitions.
The Russian army fired ammunition in 5 days is equivalent to what the Caesar rifles fired in 13 years in Afghanistan, Iraq, Mali and in training.
Rebuild inventory
Former diplomat Francois Heisburg warned that the Russian army's ammunition fired in 5 days is equivalent to what Caesar's guns fired in 13 years in Afghanistan, Iraq, Mali and in training, noting that "all EU countries except Poland and possibly Finland do not have an operational stockpile to fight a very intense conflict for a similar period as Moscow does."
Despite President Emmanuel Macron's new military programming law for 2024-2030 and the announcement by military industry companies to increase production, François Heisburg estimates that "two years" to create a new chain and "build a factory, buy machinery, hire qualified personnel and meet security constraints" could make delivery times extend beyond reason, from "10 to 20 months for simple missiles," and possibly increase the time frame to "4 or 5 years" for the Egzosit anti-ship missile.
Rebuilding stockpiles could be an advantage in various ways for a France that enjoys its nuclear deterrent, as a stabilizing factor or diplomatic weight, an indispensable challenge if Paris wants to maintain its position.