Image source: topwar.ru
France and Great Britain have been fighting for a leading role in Europe for hundreds of years and the residue from this struggle remains today.
According to the British newspaper The Times, soon the French army may be the strongest on the European continent, pushing the British army into second place.
— the publication notes, referring to the data of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
The newspaper writes that this may happen, despite the fact that the UK spends significantly more on defense than France. According to the Times, the British defense budget last year exceeded the French defense spending by a huge amount of 13 billion pounds.
However, the British newspaper notes, the French armed forces still have a number of advantages – they have more military personnel (about 200,000 against the British 150,000), frigates, aircraft, and France can launch nuclear missiles from submarines and airplanes. At the same time, France is inferior to the UK in the number of tanks and aircraft carriers, writes the Times. For reference, France has 1 aircraft carrier, and the UK has 2 of them, although technical problems are not solved with one of them.
Great Britain and France are the two European members of NATO with nuclear weapons. Recall that France has been a member of NATO since 1949, and in 1966 the country withdrew from the military structure of the alliance and returned to it only in 2009.
