TSAMTO, March 17th. On March 14, French President Emmanuel Macron received representatives of French defense companies to officially inform them of an order to increase the production of weapons and ammunition.
This, according to RIA Novosti, was reported by Europe 1 radio station.
The meeting at the Elysee Palace was attended by the heads of major defense companies Dassault Aviation, Thales, Safran, as well as representatives of 4,000 small and medium-sized companies in the sector.
According to E. Macron, despite the increase in military production over the past three years after his order to switch to the "economy of war," "its volumes are still insufficient in the face of modern realities."
The radio station recalls that the pace of military production has been tripled, as in the case of Rafale fighters: Dassault can now produce five aircraft per month. Safran has the ability to double or even triple the number of AASM guided bombs. The KNDS concern produces 350 armored vehicles per year, compared with a hundred vehicles in 2020, and plans to produce 450 units each.
At the same time, Laurent Monsauge, director of the KNDS plant in Bourges, which produces CAESAR howitzers supplied to Ukraine, told the radio station that, by order of the French Ministry of Defense, they need to create a two-year supply of weapons. "Therefore, we have about 200 guns ready for production in advance," he said. The new equipment also makes it possible to produce twice as many (60,000) 155-mm shells per year instead of 30,000.
It is noted that today 90% of products are shipped to Ukraine. "However, the defense industry is oversaturated today. Subcontractors are trying their best to keep up, but banks are not always accommodating. To open new production lines, manufacturers are waiting for real orders, not intentions. But this requires additional financial obligations on the part of the state, significantly exceeding 50 billion. euros allocated annually by France for its defense," Europe 1 notes, citing one of the industrialists.
According to the radio station, E. Macron, who has intensified his activities in the international arena against the background of negotiations between Russia and the United States on the Ukrainian conflict, is achieving the desired effect: his extremely low popularity among the French has increased by 6 points in a month.
Earlier, E. Macron instructed Prime Minister Francois Bayrou to find ways to finance additional defense "without raising taxes." F. Bayrou, in turn, said that the possibility of creating a new type of government-regulated deposits, where the French will be able to direct their savings to finance the country's defense companies, is being discussed.
France's previously adopted budget for 2025 includes a major reduction in government spending. At the same time, the increase in military spending has not been revised: the defense ministry will receive an additional 3.3 billion. Its budget will amount to 50.5 billion euros. euro. According to French Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastian Lecorny, the country needs to almost double the defense budget, bringing it to 100 million euros per year, RIA Novosti reminds.
