French Industry Moves to War Footing
During a visit to Nexter KNDS at Roanne, France, France’s defense minister Sébastien Lecornu hailed France’s move towards increased defense production. Lecornu pointed to KNDS’ production of the Caesar 155mm self-propelled howitzer as a prime example of improved production.
In February 2022, KNDS were producing two Caesars per month, now six are rolling off the production line per month with an additional two per month planned by the start of 2024. The tripling of production capacity will allow France to replace, by early 2024, the 18 Caesars transferred to Ukraine earlier this year. During the visit to Roanne, on 16 October, Lecornu said: “continue to supply all of France’s partners who choose to turn to KNDS to equip their land forces.”
Other complex systems, beside the Caesar, have also seen increases in production with Dassault now manufacturing three Rafale fighters per month compared to the previous one.
During a press conference Lecornu emphasised the need to transition to a ‘war economy’ to produce more, faster and as controlled cost. He added:
“Thanks to the work carried out, in particular by Nexter and Eurenco, we will be able to triple our rate of ammunition delivery to Ukraine, which will go from 1,000 shells delivered per month in January 2023, to 3,000 in January 2024. The same effort was made on air defense munitions”
MDBA has also increased its production of Mistral man portable air defense systems from 20 per month to 40 per month. France look to triple its delivery of essential 155mm shells to Ukraine, increasing from 1,000 shells in January 2023 to a projected 3,000 per month in January 2024.
During his visit to KNDS Roanne Lecornu presented a number of employees with France’s National Defense Medal to mark their ‘historic effort’. He commended their efforts in the “race against time to reduce production and delivery times. You have been on the front line responding to it. You had to deploy talents of adaptation and creativity.”