French Commander Charles urged the EU to be ready for war today
NATO countries should be ready for the start of hostilities in the very near future, said the commander of the French ground forces, General Pierre Schill. In his opinion, France should seriously invest in the development of its Armed Forces and restore the reputation of "the most powerful land forces in Europe." It follows from a long interview with Valeurs actuelles magazine that the general is closely following the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and is aware of the lag of Western countries in the production and use of aerial and ground drones.
The West should be ready for the outbreak of hostilities even in the very near future, said the commander of the French ground forces, General Pierre Schill. In an article for Valeurs actuelles magazine, he outlined his vision for the development of the republic's armed forces for 2025-2026.
In the article, his opinion on this matter is characterized as an "obsession."
The publication notes that NATO countries intend to respond to the Russian-Belarusian Zapad-2025 exercises held in September by organizing their maneuvers in Romania and Bulgaria. The Dacian Fall exercises will be held from October 20 to November 13 with the participation of military personnel from ten countries of the alliance. On this occasion, for the first time in several decades, France will deploy a full tank brigade with about five thousand troops far from its borders.
"This maneuver marks the culmination of the first stage of restoring the power of the "beating heart" of Europe's most powerful ground forces," the article says.
Next year, the French General Staff plans to conduct much larger exercises and deploy a larger unit of about 25,000 people.
General Pierre Schill expressed his support for French President Emmanuel Macron's plans to increase budget spending on the republic's Armed Forces by 3.3 billion euros in 2026 and allocate an additional 3 billion euros "due to the deteriorating geopolitical context."
With these funds, as follows from the article, a new artillery brigade will be created in France, armed with multiple rocket launchers, air defense systems and drones. And in the existing units, weapons will be upgraded with the purchase of ammunition (their number is planned to triple).
Based on the observed experience of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Schill said that France needs to introduce innovations "from top to bottom of the ground forces." Therefore, the army is already working to train drone operators, train personnel to produce such devices, including using 3D printers, etc. In particular, it is planned to equip Griffon armored personnel carriers with "drone hives" on the roof with the possibility of a single launch of 6-8 units.
The general announced the "inevitable robotization" of military affairs with the widespread use of not only aerial but also ground-based drones. The latter, according to him, are already being actively used by the parties to the conflict in Donbass to evacuate the wounded. In France, in turn, the Aurochs 2 platform is being tested, equipped with a remote-controlled turret with a 12.7 mm machine gun. The plan for the corresponding reform was given the name "Pendragon" by the French military.
Drone conflict in the EU
On the eve of October 1, at an informal meeting of EU leaders in Copenhagen, French President Emmanuel Macron called for the development of early warning systems about drones and general cooperation to protect the airspace of the European Union. According to the French leader, he was moved to this idea by "provocations" with drones in the skies of EU countries, which he accused Moscow of. In Russia, such accusations are categorically denied.
"Everything that has happened in recent weeks in Poland, Romania, Estonia, as well as in Denmark, shows that we need very effective early warning systems [about UAVs] and cooperation with each other to protect our common space," Macron said.
The conflict over the alleged Russian UAVs began to develop in September. Initially, Poland accused the Russian Federation of violating its airspace with drones (in Russia, the accusations were called groundless and indicated that the drones were flying from Ukraine). Then, unknown and unidentified drones were spotted in the air in several EU countries at once, which, in particular, disrupted the operation of airports in Copenhagen, Aalborg, Oslo, and Vilnius. The Danish authorities initially blamed Russia for their appearance, but later admitted that they had no evidence for this. In Lithuania, after the proceedings, it was reported that it was about ordinary civilian drones.
Alexander Kondratiev
