This is how France presses the accelerator on Defense
Le Ministère des Armées in Paris has just released the figures of the 2023 Finance Bill which shows a record budget of € 43.9 billion for next year. The article by Pietro Romano extracted from the latest in Aeronautica & Difesa
France is moving fast towards the 2 per cent milestone in military spending on gross domestic product. And also for 2023 he decided to continue along this path, according to a roadmap imposed by the confirmed technocrat president Emmanuel Macron already during his first five-year term at the Elysée. But paradoxically, Macron is offering an energetic hand, more than the war in Ukraine and even the commitments requested by NATO towards the goal, the absence of a majority to support him in Parliament. His party, Ensemble, is even a minority in the hemicycle but is measured with a lukewarm opposition front (the Republicans, a moderate right of Gaullist derivation) or coldly and rather with an Atlanticist facade (the Rassemblement Nationale, a far-right populist) if not even anti-NATO, like the varied far-left Nupes cartel. An arch that does not agree on anything (or almost) except on a sovereignty variously supporting the military strengthening of its country. An arc that if he accuses Macron on this issue is only to blame him for a position deemed too pro-US. Maybe even too pro-EU. And therefore it can only support its policy of military strengthening (and spending).
RECORD EQUIPMENT
Le Ministère des Armées in Paris has just released the figures of the 2023 Finance Bill which shows a record budget for defense of 43.9 billion euros for next year, with an increase of about 3 billion compared to the availability of the 'current year. A significant increase even more if we consider that since 2019 the financial endowment of the dicastery based at the Hotel de Brienne has grown regularly by 1.7 billion per year, in combined relative terms by 36 percent. An increase that represents a viaticum for the next military planning law to be presented (and approved) in 2023, intended to cover the period 2024/2030 and to adapt to the new strategic contexts marked by the return of the war in Europe but above all by a remodeling of the global geo-political and geo-economic balances. The amount inclusive of new orders already planned for 2023 is much higher, which according to some estimates would exceed 50 billion overall.
SIGNIFICANT DATA
The numbers announced for 2023 by the new Minister of the Armed Forces, Sebastien Lecornu, are significant in many respects. First of all, a large part of the expenditure, amounting to over 30 billion, is destined for investments. In fact, the endowment aimed at the acquisition of new devices (for 25.6 billion) and the maintenance costs in operation of the existing material, too often crammed in warehouses but substantially unusable, amounts to a lot, a problem that can be fatal for Europe. in case of war and is common to the Armed Forces of the main countries. An increase of 669 million is expected for the salary, a recognition intended not only to guarantee a homogeneous purchasing power to the military and their families compared to previous years, despite the remarkable increase in the cost of living, but also to avoid flight of more qualified executives towards more profitable and generally less dangerous jobs, a problem particularly felt by the Air Force for pilots and maintainers of aircraft and helicopters. The ministry has also planned to increase the staff in the next year, which currently numbers 271 thousand, of which 63 thousand civilians, and in 2023 it will weigh on public accounts for about 13 billion. So the new hires will not only serve to completely replace the number of those who will retire (29,700 soldiers in total) but to increase the staff by 1,500 units. And 85 percent of the new forces will be under the age of 25, to accentuate the policy of rejuvenating men (and women) in uniform.
ADAPT THE ARSENALS
Going into the detail of the expenses for the military equipment, the total includes five billion for the maintenance in operational conditions of the war equipment; 4.7 billion for digital infrastructures, in particular those relating to the implementation of the Scorpion project, aimed at equipping the Army with a confidential platform and information system; 3.1 billion to renew and increase ammunition stocks, substantially reduced by free supplies to Ukraine; 1.7 billion small (but not secondary) equipment such as new combat safety suits, bulletproof vests, anti-bacteriological masks; one billion for innovation, aimed at reinforcing the operational capacity of the Armed Forces and the strategic autonomy of the country and the European Union, placed directly at the disposal of the Agence de l'Innovation de défense. Furthermore, 1.2 billion have been posted to protect citizens in daily life by continuing the Sentinelle operations involving 10 thousand troops and the small Héphaistos. Finally, the commitment abroad of 30,000 soldiers stationed in operational theaters and military bases was renewed.
PROJECTS & BENEFICIARIES
But to which military means and which industries is the bulk of the financial resources insured for 2023 by the Ministère des Armées in the French Finance Act destined? In short, what are the projects that will absorb most of the resources and who will benefit from these investments? At the top of the list is the continuation (further strengthened) of the renewal of the fighter aircraft fleet. In 2023 orders are expected for 42 new Rafale aircraft, the flagship product of the transalpine industry, flagship of the Dassault Aviation group and driving the boom in exports of military products, which amounted to 11.7 billion euros in 2021. third best result in history, after 16 billion in 2015 and 14 billion in 2016. An important beneficiary of state military orders is Airbus Helicopters, from which the French administration will ask for 22 so-called maneuvering helicopters. Among the important suppliers is the role of Mbda , the European missile giant in charge of equipping the Armed Forces with a batch of medium-range missiles and a batch of missiles to be loaded on the Navy frigates. The Navy will receive a second example of a Barracuda-class nuclear attack submarine built by the DCNS shipyard. The Army will be equipped with 264 light armored vehicles from a consortium that includes the domestic manufacturer Nexter. The supply of Caesar guns will also be of significant Nexter manufacture, partly intended to replace the numerous specimens donated by Paris to Ukraine.
TOWARDS 2030
Having acquired the record growth for 2023, the gaze is aimed at 2030. Since the summer, the Ministère des Armées has been working on the new military planning law. The objective of Minister Lecornu, of the military and various capacities of a substantial part of the political world is to arrive by 2030 to allocate 2 percent of GDP to the military budget. To reach this goal, more or less leaving the production of transalpine goods and services to bowls at a standstill, Lecornu asks that the total expenditure in this period of time be no less than 400/410 billion while the military is aiming for 430 billion. However, the technicians of the Ministére de l'Economie, des Finance et de la Souveraineté industrielle et numérique, led by Bruno Le Maire, are not of the same opinion. In the opinion of the holder of the department, the economic situation is currently such that the total commitment cannot exceed 377 billion. On its side, the "military party" would also seem to have Macron. The French president would be aware that more and more in the next few years the game will expand to new fields, from cybernetic to space, which require substantial investments but also guarantee a dual fallout such as to favor the strengthening of industrial sovereignty, to which France as a whole – and therefore not only the "military party" or the sovereign right and left – rightly holds a lot.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/ecco-come-la-francia-preme-lacceleratore-sulla-difesa/ on Sun, 13 Nov 2022 06:28:10 +0000.