France ramps up weapons production for Ukraine and says Russia is scrutinizing the West's mettle

France's defense minister says French manufacturers have reduced manufacturing times for some of the weapons systems they supply to Ukraine by half or more

PARIS -- French manufacturers have reduced the manufacturing times for some of the weapons systems they supply to Ukraine by half or more, as France increasingly switches away from its previous policy of dipping into its own military stocks to support the war effort against Russia's invasion, France's defense minister said in an interview published Thursday.

“The logic of ceding materiel taken from the armies' stocks is reaching its end,” the minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said in the interview with Le Parisien. “From now on, the solution is to directly connect French defense industries with the Ukrainian army.”

He cited the Caesar self-propelled 155 mm howitzer, made in France by Nexter, as an example of how French defense contractors are adopting a war footing. Caesars are among an array of Western-supplied artillery systems that have given Ukrainian gun crews an edge, especially when paired with high-precision munitions, against Russian artillery batteries using older Soviet-designed systems.

Nexter used to take 30 months to make one Caesar but now requires half that time, Lecornu said. The aim is to produce 78 Caesars this year, and Ukraine intends to pay for six of them itself, he said. France will also help finance Caesar deliveries and hopes other backers of Ukraine will also provide funding, he added.

Ammunition production is also being ramped up. From the end of this month, France will supply Ukraine with 3,000 shells per month for its 155 mm guns, up from 1,000 shells in April 2023. Lecornu said. Thales now takes six months — down from 18 months — to deliver one of its GM200 radars that have been provided to Ukraine for its air defenses, and MBDA's production time for the Mistral short-range air-defense missile has also been substantially reduced, he said.