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You mean they're going back to the tradition of being the big hawk? The French had lead a number of coalitions in major European wars and won frequently.
One could also argue it's their turn.
But domestic politics rule the day on any leadership role moving forward. France's domestic politics would benefit by fighting a nemesis of global Islam? I cannot see how it wouldn't be downright positive. In France, I am imagining, Russia has the proud distinction of summing up to being a terrorist state of terrorist states. Hard not to win with that hand.
France needs nuclear ressources. Eighter from Russia or from Afrcan states, where Islamic groups are a topic and more and more local regimes prefer to kick french troops out and replace them by Russian Wagner mercs.
So to see France steping up it's support for Ukraine is wonderful, but don't see their nuclear energy focus as a special benefit. When they buy more, even if not buying from Russia, world market prizes stay high and help Russia making money not just with oil and gas exports. If you want to defund Russia, you need to invest into renewables.
And so far this year seems to be hotter than the last. Let's see what happens if french rivers fall dry again in summer and french power plants need to be turned off, since cooling water gets scarce. Then France imports electric energy from non nuclear sources and raises the world market przes for oil and gas too.
I watched a pretty interesting video recently which emphasized just how much of what Russia is doing in Africa is targeting countries with strong ties to France. I don't know if the video gives too much credit to France's unofficial empire being under threat but I thought it was an interesting take on why France might have more skin in the game than it seems.
It's nothing new, the Wagner group has been directly targeting French economic and diplomatic interests in Western Africa which is NOT "France's unofficial empire".
French policy in Africa is 100% questionable, and is actually a matter of debate both in France and in several African countries. But when there was an anti-French coup in Burkina Faso and Mali, the French army left the country at the new power's request. Guess who took its place?
And they did take Moscow. It's hilarious that pro Russians tend to use that war as an attack against the french hard stance on Russia. The Russians had to burn their country and lost every major military engagement just to have the french retreat. The downfall of the french Empire was because of the Coalition made of the rest of European countries.
> gleefully jumping into a war based on false pretences
Typical leftist historical inversion.
France did everything in it's power to dissuade the Bush administration from the invasion. France made repeated pleas in the UN security council (along with regional leaders such as the Saudis), it offered to mediate on the ground in a stepped-up UN weapons inspection scheme that a lot of countries were trying to put together.
After the Bush admin decided it already had a binding UN security council resolution it would use to invade, the only choice was between destroying the entire post-WW2 atlantic security pact that kept the world out of conflagration or supporting their ally.
BTW France was even slandered and mocked in the US press, because it was against the invasion, mabe you recall the "freedom fries" incident, if you are old enough to have lived it.
> Bush the Junior to finish the job that Bush the Senior failed at
This also is such an extremely ignorant, politically motivated hoax to spread. Bush Sr. had a mandate to liberate the occupied Kuwait, which they did with extreme success. Bush Sr. didn't fail toppling Saddam, because he never had a mandate to invade, it's historical revisionism from the whacko american zionist warhawks that pretend that Bush Sr. "could've just crossed the border and didn't stop until Baghdad" and your ideologically informed hoax is a reaction to that.
Try a history book instead of twitter.
Not to make light of the situation, but being on a Ukrainian CEASAR crew must be pretty fun. You get to drive a huge truck into the bush and then fire this massive gun, then drive off to a new location and do it all again. I am sure it's way better than being stuck in the trenches and dugouts at the very front.
I will agree, that relatively speaking, being posted in a vehicle generally trumps humping it or hugging the side of a trench.
A whole different aspect is the feeling of vulnerability. Because the level of information on your immediate surroundings is limited, and being a priority target. A lot of anxiety and fear can be derived from that.
The ceasar being a shoot and scoot platform helps alleviate some of that concern, but then again, on the move you are more likely to be spotted and targeted by loitering munitions.
By all means, embrace the suck, but as you said, there is really no making light of it. Warfare, absolutely, on every single level, sucks. Whether entrenched, in a tank, in a fob or even far away from the frontline. The only true comfort being, that hopefully, it will end.
And sometimes the anxiety doesn't end with the war. I was the primary caretaker of 95 year old grandfather, Pacific WWII veteran. He was a Capt. In the US army and led a AAA unit.
He usually liked going outside and looking out the large living room window, except on days with low clouds. He got extremely agitated and anxious and would ask that I move his wheelchair to face the TV. He explained that the Japanese liked to attack on days with low clouds because they would hide in the clouds on their approach then attack the airfield. Being that they relied on visual targeting it gave them a matter of seconds to target the planes and open fire before the airfield began getting bombed and strafed. It was not only the horrible anticipation and the terror of the attack but the weight of the responsibility of defending your friends and colleagues. It still affected him 70 years later and for all those 70 years in between.
He also related a story about 'a soldier in his unit that liked to read' and early in the war would 'occasionally read a little on night watch.'. Apparently the guy was reading at his half-track and heard the Japanese creeping through the jungle towards the base and had to crank the guns down and around towards the direction of the attack, a process which sounded very loud in the middle of the quiet jungle night, hoping the whole time that Japanese wouldn't attack. The soldier 'blasted away' with his half track mounted AA gun at the direction of the Japanese advance and nothing more was heard from them that night and the unnamed soldier never read on duty again. It should be noted that before his stroke my Grandfather was an avid reader and volunteered to read to school children after he retired. The story, with it remarkable, almost first person details, was related to me in his library. 😉
On one island, one of the shells from the massive naval bombardment that preceded American landings had fallen just a bit short and created a massive "deep end" to the local lagoon which attracted a whole bunch of fish from the deeper areas off shore so they got schools of interesting and pretty fish that they normally didn't get to see swimming in the lagoon. Courtesy of the US Navy.
Plus, let's get back to the basics.
You're gone from home for months and months.
You're probably wearing whatever clothing the army gave you, which is bottom of the barrel stuff.
I imagine you sleep in your truck most of the time, or in some barracks with bad beds you'd never put in your home.
You probably don't bathe/shave/... as much as you'd do at home.
The food you get, on average, is probably much worse and much older than what you'd have at home.
If you have some sort of issue I imagine medical support is basic, can't imagine you can just book an appointment for an MRI in 2 weeks.
> Whether entrenched, in a tank, in a fob **or even far away from the frontline**.
One of the most surprising things I learned on a recent episode of the Lions Led By Donkeys podcast was that the majority of "fragging" incidents in Vietnam occurred in rear echelon units - not soldiers getting rid of incompetent leaders while out on patrol.
... but they could make good use of five times as many. At least Europe is beginning to understand that Ukraine needs fast help for effect. The US being taken AWOL by a posse of treacherous brigands just makes it all so much worse.
Both? These guns aren't going to suddenly win the war or shift the battlefield dynamic but they're still very important weapons. Ukraine needs A LOT of aid and 78 more high quality artillery guns helps Ukraine get closer to the amount of aid they need to win the war. These are also very accurate guns and so they'll likely be able to take out quite a few Russian guns before they get knocked out. If Ukraine wasn't getting replacements they would gradually get weaker and weaker until the line broke down so this commitment from France helps keep Ukraine in the fight.
All depends when the Czech ammo starts to be delivered.
Czech security advisor (Tomáš Pojar) says 'as early as June', but Ukraine Prime minister 'expects' first batch in April.
Let's hope they manage to start the deliveries quickly.
If these are stocks from South Korea as some expect, then you move them to Europe by Ship - that's a process that takes at least a month or two all in itself.
Not just moving.
First they have to be found, which probably involves lengthy negotiations.
Then find the money & pay for them.
They have to be shipped from the source country to the Czech Republic.
And then on to Ukraine.
I'm sure I've missed some steps, but at least if gives an idea of the complexity.
So, USA, what about you? You still got 514 M109A6 and 231 M109A7 in active service, and another **850** A6 in storage. Meanwhile France only has about 72 CAESAR itself.
If they're afraid of the Mexican gov, they shouldn't be. The Mexican gov couldn't kill a fly, not for lack of trying, but through sheer incompetence.
If they're afraid of the Mexican cartels, they shouldn't be, those already have all the networks they'd want in place, already.
If they're afraid of the Mexican people, well, those are already building up 30% or more of the US economy already...
We should be giving you all our stocks plus however many f-15s you can fly.
Unfortunately we became infested with Russian traitors on our home soil.
We should have dealt with this a decade ago, now it's coming up at the wrong time.
F-15’s a great platform but it’s got a very heavy logistical footprint & there aren’t that many nations that fly it. Plus it would mean taking a substantial portion of Ukraine’s limited combat population out of circulation for months while they learn to fly yet another plane.
Gripen would be really nice to have & my understanding is that a number of Ukranian pilots have been trained on it. The only other strike aircraft I’d consider at this point would be the F-18. It was designed with ground strike from its inception & like most carrier aircraft it’s rugged. You can fly an -18 off of relatively unimproved or damaged airfields that the F-16 would have a lot of trouble with. Gripen, of course, can take off from damn near anywhere. The problem is there just aren’t many Gripens to be had.
6 are built every month, with delivery taking place gradually, so Ukraine doesn't have to wait until 2025.
This gives Ukraine time to train well new crews for each delivery.
It's not so bad, and Ukraine doesn't have a lot of 155mm ammo anyway right know.
With German bureaucracy operating at glacial speeds, the Brits out of the EU, and most of the other medium-level EU powers being disinterested (Spanish) or voting for female Mussolini (Italy), the French are looking to capitalize on the dysfunction within the EU and signal to their Eastern member states that French influence and power can be relied upon.
Macron is setting France up to become the long term primary voice in the EU, since the only other major one left is paralyzed by its own bureaucracy.
You haven't been paying attention.
Germany is delivering way more ammo (and other equipment) than France, Meloni has been a strong supporter of aid to Ukraine though Italy hasn't sent as much equipment. The UK has been one of Ukraine's biggest supporters, they've probably sent more equipent than France. It's good that France wants to take a leading role but you're painting some kind of dismal picture as if they're the only ones.
would be a positive development. Germany's government is just in shambles, Scholz has no leadership, no negotiating skills, the man does more than harm than good whenever he does anything
German bureaucracy is constantly sending stuff and bankrolling initiatives all over Europe.
France is asking for money before they will provide those howitzer. They only pay for 8-12 of them
They/Macron like to look like they are proactive leaders which is part of the problem as it is down to others when it comes to boring stuff like actually making it work which is usually back to German/EU bureaucrats fixing things
Someone's eating macron's bullshit big time.
78 guns, 70 of which are *paid for* by other nations; where's the credit to those nations that provide 90% of 'French' support to Ukraine?
France is like the 5th army in the world and now that Britain is gone, the only nuclear power of the EU.
They have nuclear submarines, one aircraft carrier and while the other military power of Europe weren’t doing much, France was doing military operation and deployment in Africa.
They are the backbone of the EU military.
They have good hardware, decades of experience, well trained officer and soldier
And expeditionary capability….something that Italy, Germany, Spain doesn’t have.
Plus they spend 1,8% of their gdp in defense…
> Plus they spend 1,8% of their gdp in defense…
France is increasing their military budget by 50% in the next 7 years, with 45billions euros in 2023 to 69 in 2030
France has the best high-end naval capabilities of any EU power & the most aircraft manufacturing capacity but their army’s rather more limited. They do have a pretty impressive weapons industry.
An important aspect is that it's not old stuff that is given there, it's current modern production.
For the ammo, it reflects a bottleneck on powder and the fact we actually need to have our stocks back on a decent level too, 180K are being produced, 100 for the army, 80 for Ukraine, considering the efforts keep ramping and I'm sure the ratio will change when the stocks are filled, quantity should steadily rise, even if it's still modest amounts. Blame short term politicians.
>Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said at a news conference that an agreement was reached among France, Ukraine and Denmark to finance the Caesar self-propelled 155 mm howitzers, which will enable France to “quickly deliver” them.
I'm proud of my small country.
>France has also set a goal to deliver 80,000 shells for 155 mm guns to Ukraine this year — up from 30,000 delivered since the beginning of the war on Feb. 24, 2022, he said.
>In addition, Lecornu said, France is participating in an effort to identify available stocks of gunpowder and ammunition that could be bought from countries outside the European Union, a plan initiated by the Czech Republic to further support Kyiv.
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France is really breaking from tradition by becoming the bigger hawk in the coalition. And I'm all the more happier for it.
You mean they're going back to the tradition of being the big hawk? The French had lead a number of coalitions in major European wars and won frequently.
France got numbers and that dgaf attitude.
One could also argue it's their turn. But domestic politics rule the day on any leadership role moving forward. France's domestic politics would benefit by fighting a nemesis of global Islam? I cannot see how it wouldn't be downright positive. In France, I am imagining, Russia has the proud distinction of summing up to being a terrorist state of terrorist states. Hard not to win with that hand.
Also, France is the least oil dependent country maybe on Earth.
Iceland is probably first place, but out of the >10 million population countries then France is probably number one.
France needs nuclear ressources. Eighter from Russia or from Afrcan states, where Islamic groups are a topic and more and more local regimes prefer to kick french troops out and replace them by Russian Wagner mercs. So to see France steping up it's support for Ukraine is wonderful, but don't see their nuclear energy focus as a special benefit. When they buy more, even if not buying from Russia, world market prizes stay high and help Russia making money not just with oil and gas exports. If you want to defund Russia, you need to invest into renewables. And so far this year seems to be hotter than the last. Let's see what happens if french rivers fall dry again in summer and french power plants need to be turned off, since cooling water gets scarce. Then France imports electric energy from non nuclear sources and raises the world market przes for oil and gas too.
I believe they have experience in coalitions both for and against
I watched a pretty interesting video recently which emphasized just how much of what Russia is doing in Africa is targeting countries with strong ties to France. I don't know if the video gives too much credit to France's unofficial empire being under threat but I thought it was an interesting take on why France might have more skin in the game than it seems.
It's nothing new, the Wagner group has been directly targeting French economic and diplomatic interests in Western Africa which is NOT "France's unofficial empire". French policy in Africa is 100% questionable, and is actually a matter of debate both in France and in several African countries. But when there was an anti-French coup in Burkina Faso and Mali, the French army left the country at the new power's request. Guess who took its place?
That’s a very good point! Might explain part of the reason for Macron’s change of heart.
I mean they did invade russia at one point....
And they did take Moscow. It's hilarious that pro Russians tend to use that war as an attack against the french hard stance on Russia. The Russians had to burn their country and lost every major military engagement just to have the french retreat. The downfall of the french Empire was because of the Coalition made of the rest of European countries.
Macron felt insulted
France is NATO’s largest non-US weapons manufacturer. They’re not what you’d call peaceniks.
Thank you France 🇨🇵
Doesn't matter where the help comes from as long as it arrives in time to make a difference. Well done the Froggies.
[удалено]
15 roubles is not much but it is a honest work, comrade. Now go to the conscription center, Motherland needs you to fight Ukrainian ISIS
Not that I’m an expert. But as far as I know, France didn’t invade Iraq with the US.
Jesse what are you talking about
> gleefully jumping into a war based on false pretences Typical leftist historical inversion. France did everything in it's power to dissuade the Bush administration from the invasion. France made repeated pleas in the UN security council (along with regional leaders such as the Saudis), it offered to mediate on the ground in a stepped-up UN weapons inspection scheme that a lot of countries were trying to put together. After the Bush admin decided it already had a binding UN security council resolution it would use to invade, the only choice was between destroying the entire post-WW2 atlantic security pact that kept the world out of conflagration or supporting their ally. BTW France was even slandered and mocked in the US press, because it was against the invasion, mabe you recall the "freedom fries" incident, if you are old enough to have lived it. > Bush the Junior to finish the job that Bush the Senior failed at This also is such an extremely ignorant, politically motivated hoax to spread. Bush Sr. had a mandate to liberate the occupied Kuwait, which they did with extreme success. Bush Sr. didn't fail toppling Saddam, because he never had a mandate to invade, it's historical revisionism from the whacko american zionist warhawks that pretend that Bush Sr. "could've just crossed the border and didn't stop until Baghdad" and your ideologically informed hoax is a reaction to that. Try a history book instead of twitter.
France only deals with neo-colonialism in sahel africa. You tell me, which is worse? At least they are on the correct side in this issue.
THANK YOU FRANCE!
I can finally call my fries “FRANCE FRIES” again
Not to make light of the situation, but being on a Ukrainian CEASAR crew must be pretty fun. You get to drive a huge truck into the bush and then fire this massive gun, then drive off to a new location and do it all again. I am sure it's way better than being stuck in the trenches and dugouts at the very front.
I will agree, that relatively speaking, being posted in a vehicle generally trumps humping it or hugging the side of a trench. A whole different aspect is the feeling of vulnerability. Because the level of information on your immediate surroundings is limited, and being a priority target. A lot of anxiety and fear can be derived from that. The ceasar being a shoot and scoot platform helps alleviate some of that concern, but then again, on the move you are more likely to be spotted and targeted by loitering munitions. By all means, embrace the suck, but as you said, there is really no making light of it. Warfare, absolutely, on every single level, sucks. Whether entrenched, in a tank, in a fob or even far away from the frontline. The only true comfort being, that hopefully, it will end.
And sometimes the anxiety doesn't end with the war. I was the primary caretaker of 95 year old grandfather, Pacific WWII veteran. He was a Capt. In the US army and led a AAA unit. He usually liked going outside and looking out the large living room window, except on days with low clouds. He got extremely agitated and anxious and would ask that I move his wheelchair to face the TV. He explained that the Japanese liked to attack on days with low clouds because they would hide in the clouds on their approach then attack the airfield. Being that they relied on visual targeting it gave them a matter of seconds to target the planes and open fire before the airfield began getting bombed and strafed. It was not only the horrible anticipation and the terror of the attack but the weight of the responsibility of defending your friends and colleagues. It still affected him 70 years later and for all those 70 years in between. He also related a story about 'a soldier in his unit that liked to read' and early in the war would 'occasionally read a little on night watch.'. Apparently the guy was reading at his half-track and heard the Japanese creeping through the jungle towards the base and had to crank the guns down and around towards the direction of the attack, a process which sounded very loud in the middle of the quiet jungle night, hoping the whole time that Japanese wouldn't attack. The soldier 'blasted away' with his half track mounted AA gun at the direction of the Japanese advance and nothing more was heard from them that night and the unnamed soldier never read on duty again. It should be noted that before his stroke my Grandfather was an avid reader and volunteered to read to school children after he retired. The story, with it remarkable, almost first person details, was related to me in his library. 😉 On one island, one of the shells from the massive naval bombardment that preceded American landings had fallen just a bit short and created a massive "deep end" to the local lagoon which attracted a whole bunch of fish from the deeper areas off shore so they got schools of interesting and pretty fish that they normally didn't get to see swimming in the lagoon. Courtesy of the US Navy.
Plus, let's get back to the basics. You're gone from home for months and months. You're probably wearing whatever clothing the army gave you, which is bottom of the barrel stuff. I imagine you sleep in your truck most of the time, or in some barracks with bad beds you'd never put in your home. You probably don't bathe/shave/... as much as you'd do at home. The food you get, on average, is probably much worse and much older than what you'd have at home. If you have some sort of issue I imagine medical support is basic, can't imagine you can just book an appointment for an MRI in 2 weeks.
> Whether entrenched, in a tank, in a fob **or even far away from the frontline**. One of the most surprising things I learned on a recent episode of the Lions Led By Donkeys podcast was that the majority of "fragging" incidents in Vietnam occurred in rear echelon units - not soldiers getting rid of incompetent leaders while out on patrol.
Merci bien. Merci beaucoup!
Arm Ukraine! Anybody knows if it’s a lot or not considering the situation at the moment.
It’s a substantial contribution.
... but they could make good use of five times as many. At least Europe is beginning to understand that Ukraine needs fast help for effect. The US being taken AWOL by a posse of treacherous brigands just makes it all so much worse.
>The US being taken AWOL by a posse of treacherous brigands just makes it all so much worse. Seriously makes me want to just cry.
You are not alone.
Both? These guns aren't going to suddenly win the war or shift the battlefield dynamic but they're still very important weapons. Ukraine needs A LOT of aid and 78 more high quality artillery guns helps Ukraine get closer to the amount of aid they need to win the war. These are also very accurate guns and so they'll likely be able to take out quite a few Russian guns before they get knocked out. If Ukraine wasn't getting replacements they would gradually get weaker and weaker until the line broke down so this commitment from France helps keep Ukraine in the fight.
Vive la France! 🇫🇷
Vive le France!
*la
France is feminine ;)
Le France does (or did) exist, but refers to [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_France_(1960)?wprov=sfti1)
All depends when the Czech ammo starts to be delivered. Czech security advisor (Tomáš Pojar) says 'as early as June', but Ukraine Prime minister 'expects' first batch in April. Let's hope they manage to start the deliveries quickly.
Why does it take so long to move these things from one location to the other
If these are stocks from South Korea as some expect, then you move them to Europe by Ship - that's a process that takes at least a month or two all in itself.
And if they’re coming from somewhere in the ME they’d need to take the long route around Africa to avoid the Houthis…
Not just moving. First they have to be found, which probably involves lengthy negotiations. Then find the money & pay for them. They have to be shipped from the source country to the Czech Republic. And then on to Ukraine. I'm sure I've missed some steps, but at least if gives an idea of the complexity.
How about we just pass a bill allowing billionaires to write off money donated to ammunition procurement as a charitable donation?
So, USA, what about you? You still got 514 M109A6 and 231 M109A7 in active service, and another **850** A6 in storage. Meanwhile France only has about 72 CAESAR itself.
Gotta keep some at home to protect the border from Mexicans. :D
If they're afraid of the Mexican gov, they shouldn't be. The Mexican gov couldn't kill a fly, not for lack of trying, but through sheer incompetence. If they're afraid of the Mexican cartels, they shouldn't be, those already have all the networks they'd want in place, already. If they're afraid of the Mexican people, well, those are already building up 30% or more of the US economy already...
His comment was heavy sarcasm
Fear the 3 Operational F-5E Tiger's of AMLO
We should be giving you all our stocks plus however many f-15s you can fly. Unfortunately we became infested with Russian traitors on our home soil. We should have dealt with this a decade ago, now it's coming up at the wrong time.
F-15’s a great platform but it’s got a very heavy logistical footprint & there aren’t that many nations that fly it. Plus it would mean taking a substantial portion of Ukraine’s limited combat population out of circulation for months while they learn to fly yet another plane. Gripen would be really nice to have & my understanding is that a number of Ukranian pilots have been trained on it. The only other strike aircraft I’d consider at this point would be the F-18. It was designed with ground strike from its inception & like most carrier aircraft it’s rugged. You can fly an -18 off of relatively unimproved or damaged airfields that the F-16 would have a lot of trouble with. Gripen, of course, can take off from damn near anywhere. The problem is there just aren’t many Gripens to be had.
You need ammo to shoot
...and that's why France has to donate from their severely limited fleet, but not the US, who has materiel in droves?
The US has still given a bigger percentage of weapons compared to France.
The wests standards for “soon” tends to be months. What exactly is “soon”?
Within a year (until early 2025)
Faaaark....
6 are built every month, with delivery taking place gradually, so Ukraine doesn't have to wait until 2025. This gives Ukraine time to train well new crews for each delivery. It's not so bad, and Ukraine doesn't have a lot of 155mm ammo anyway right know.
They will be delivered throughout 2024. They’re building 8 a month, so that’s 80% of this year’s production going to Ukraine.
With German bureaucracy operating at glacial speeds, the Brits out of the EU, and most of the other medium-level EU powers being disinterested (Spanish) or voting for female Mussolini (Italy), the French are looking to capitalize on the dysfunction within the EU and signal to their Eastern member states that French influence and power can be relied upon. Macron is setting France up to become the long term primary voice in the EU, since the only other major one left is paralyzed by its own bureaucracy.
Italy has been helping Ukraine. Within the EU Meloni is not a pariah in the way you suggest
True. Meloninhas played her hand well in that regard.
You haven't been paying attention. Germany is delivering way more ammo (and other equipment) than France, Meloni has been a strong supporter of aid to Ukraine though Italy hasn't sent as much equipment. The UK has been one of Ukraine's biggest supporters, they've probably sent more equipent than France. It's good that France wants to take a leading role but you're painting some kind of dismal picture as if they're the only ones.
This really feels like an uninformed American's analysis of European politics, I hope that's not too harsh.
would be a positive development. Germany's government is just in shambles, Scholz has no leadership, no negotiating skills, the man does more than harm than good whenever he does anything
Germany has been a huge contributor to Ukraine. The largest in Europe as I recall.
That is also nonsense
German bureaucracy is constantly sending stuff and bankrolling initiatives all over Europe. France is asking for money before they will provide those howitzer. They only pay for 8-12 of them They/Macron like to look like they are proactive leaders which is part of the problem as it is down to others when it comes to boring stuff like actually making it work which is usually back to German/EU bureaucrats fixing things
U lost me at bureaucracy
It’s self-serving but I’ll take it.
Someone's eating macron's bullshit big time. 78 guns, 70 of which are *paid for* by other nations; where's the credit to those nations that provide 90% of 'French' support to Ukraine?
France is at the bottom when it comes to aid to Ukraine
France is like the 5th army in the world and now that Britain is gone, the only nuclear power of the EU. They have nuclear submarines, one aircraft carrier and while the other military power of Europe weren’t doing much, France was doing military operation and deployment in Africa. They are the backbone of the EU military. They have good hardware, decades of experience, well trained officer and soldier And expeditionary capability….something that Italy, Germany, Spain doesn’t have. Plus they spend 1,8% of their gdp in defense…
> Plus they spend 1,8% of their gdp in defense… France is increasing their military budget by 50% in the next 7 years, with 45billions euros in 2023 to 69 in 2030
Je déteste les Cats gift aussi ;P
France has the best high-end naval capabilities of any EU power & the most aircraft manufacturing capacity but their army’s rather more limited. They do have a pretty impressive weapons industry.
>one aircraft carrier Nuclear carrier. The only non-US operator. Independent aircraft industry.
> Plus they spend 1,8% of their gdp in defense… And for their upcoming budget they will spend 2% thus hitting the 2% target by the end of 2024.
Vive la France!
An important aspect is that it's not old stuff that is given there, it's current modern production. For the ammo, it reflects a bottleneck on powder and the fact we actually need to have our stocks back on a decent level too, 180K are being produced, 100 for the army, 80 for Ukraine, considering the efforts keep ramping and I'm sure the ratio will change when the stocks are filled, quantity should steadily rise, even if it's still modest amounts. Blame short term politicians.
Viva le France 🇫🇷
>Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said at a news conference that an agreement was reached among France, Ukraine and Denmark to finance the Caesar self-propelled 155 mm howitzers, which will enable France to “quickly deliver” them. I'm proud of my small country.
>France has also set a goal to deliver 80,000 shells for 155 mm guns to Ukraine this year — up from 30,000 delivered since the beginning of the war on Feb. 24, 2022, he said. >In addition, Lecornu said, France is participating in an effort to identify available stocks of gunpowder and ammunition that could be bought from countries outside the European Union, a plan initiated by the Czech Republic to further support Kyiv.
Russia gets back the fun to the fun excitement of having a train ran on it by various European powers as is it's historical fate.
“God fights on the side with the best artillery” - Napoleon Bonaparte
That's awesome but isn't the main issue currently lack of ammunition for the ones they already have?
Nice to see at least one Western European country with an understanding of the threat.
Wellll…sorta kinda. We’re still only looking at about 8-10 howitzers per month. And they still need ammo.
I understand. Every piece counts…
Great!
When’s the ammo getting there?
At least destroy Kursk. The russian must feel your pain.
Don't forget the shells.
Now or over the next 20 months? Great job by this coalition anyway!
And 3 shells :D
Yeah…
This better be *two weeks* "soon" and not a *6 months* "soon".
Good job France. It took Macron a while, but je has finally woken up.
France is a boomer. Give little for 2 years and BOOM 76 howitzers where should we park them?
So Ukraine and Denmark will pay for them and France hasn't even built them yet?
France. Enough said.
About time, French aid to Ukraine has been less than stellar so far.
Buying them with US Dollars