France Continuously Accelerates the Step of National Defense Construction
2023-08-31
The French "Caesar" vehicle mounted self-propelled howitzer. The French "Orion 2023" exercise is currently conducting airborne paratroopers exercises. Recently, according to the new version of the French Military Planning Act, France's defense budget will reach the standard of 2% of GDP starting from 2025. According to this bill, from 2024 to 2030, the French military will be granted a defense budget of 413.3 billion euros, a net increase of 118.3 billion euros or 40% compared to the previous version of the bill's 295 billion euros budget. This move marks the first explosive growth in France's defense budget since the end of the Cold War, attracting attention from all sectors. Security anxiety is rising. The occurrence of the Russia-Ukraine conflict has been adjusted in advance, making France's security anxiety rising. This is also the geostrategic background of France's rising defense budget. The last round of the Military Planning Act was set from 2019 to 2025. However, the emergence of the Ukrainian crisis prompted the French government to respond quickly according to the changes in the situation of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and update the Military Planning Act in advance to ensure that the French army won the future war in a highly uncertain strategic environment. Some French experts believe that the Russia-Ukraine conflict has seriously impacted the international arms control system and deepened the nuclear proliferation crisis. Faced with the increasing nuclear threat, France has begun to think about how to make nuclear deterrence more credible and reliable. At the same time, the conflict between Russia-Ukraine conflict has intensified the competition among major countries, making the hybrid war more extensive. The ground attack and defense of traditional operations are common, and the related threats continue to expand. This not only marks the return of a truly symmetrical war, but also reveals the strong call of future military forces for large-scale, cross cutting, and high-intensity joint operations. The evolution of the Russia-Ukraine conflict requires the French army to review and adjust the small war preparation mode that used to focus on peacekeeping, anti-terrorism and intervention. In the Russia-Ukraine conflict, new technologies such as "Star Chain", unmanned aerial vehicles, artificial intelligence and so on were widely used, and the French army was deeply impressed by the huge role of new technologies in the traditional battlefield, so as to speed up the in-depth research and development of emerging technologies. At the same time, France continuously adjusts its weapon production and operation mode, striving to achieve large-scale manufacturing and large inventory reserves, ensuring that the French military has the ability to cope with high-end war conflicts. In June last year, France focused on the actual situation on the Ukrainian battlefield and launched a comprehensive "war economy" project, reforming the operation and management mode of the defense industry, in an attempt to overcome supply difficulties caused by energy crises, goods embargoes, inflation, and other factors. French military personnel believe that in the context of the great power game, it is necessary to further accelerate the pace of national defense construction to develop new qualitative forces and achieve precise policy implementation. The new version of the French Military Planning Act mainly addresses the "persistent illnesses" in the military field in the past, focusing on the basic principles of precise policy implementation and tailored treatment. From the perspective of implementing the main content of the 2022 French National Strategic Review Report, the bill will focus on areas such as nuclear deterrence, intelligence and counterintelligence, comprehensive air defense, unmanned equipment, technological innovation in Skynet and Sea, ammunition reserves, and optimization of human resources, in order to repair the shortcomings caused by years of reduction in defense budgets. Specifically, it is as follows: strong increment. France's defense budget for 2024 will increase by 3.5 billion euros year-on-year
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