According to US media reports, French Defense Minister Sebastian Le Cornout recently outlined the contents of the 2025 defense budget during a meeting of the House of Commons Defense Committee, proposing to increase the 2025 defense budget from 47.23 billion euros (approximately 51 billion US dollars) in 2024 to 50.54 billion euros. Among them, equipment procurement and maintenance costs will account for one-third of the budget, and military personnel salaries will account for 27% of the budget. Specific expenses include the following aspects. Purchase the next generation aircraft carrier. Sebastian Lecornu stated that he will order one next-generation aircraft carrier by 2025 to replace the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, with an estimated cost of around 10 billion euros for the new aircraft carrier. Meanwhile, the first defense and interference frigate conducted its first sea test on October 7th, and France will continue to order this type of frigate. The defense and interference escort has a captain of 122 meters, a width of 17.7 meters, a displacement of 4460 tons, and a maximum speed of 27 knots. The frigate is equipped with 8 "Flying Fish" anti-ship missile launchers, 16 "Aster" -15/30 air defense missile vertical launchers, the "Sea Fire" 500 multifunctional radar, and the "Sentry" electronic warfare system. It can perform anti-ship, air defense, anti submarine, asymmetric threat, and special forces delivery missions alone or as part of the navy fleet. Increase the proportion of ammunition expenditure. France plans to spend 1.9 billion euros in 2025 to purchase ammunition, an increase of 27% year-on-year, including the European Missile Group's "Meteor" air-to-air missile, "Northwest Wind" air defense missile, "Aster" air defense missile, "Scalp" cruise missile, and "Flying Fish" anti-ship missile, as well as heavy torpedoes. Invest in domestically produced air defense systems. France will invest 500 million euros in building SAMP/T NG air defense systems by 2025. The air defense system was jointly developed by France and Italy, capable of 360 degree radar scanning, with a detection range of 350 kilometers and an interception range of over 150 kilometers. It is claimed to be able to respond to various threats, including short-range, medium range ballistic missiles and hypersonic missiles. France has ordered 8 sets of this air defense system, which is expected to start receiving in 2026 and be delivered by 2030. Maintain nuclear deterrence capability. Sebastian Lecornu stated that nuclear deterrence spending will be increased to 14% of the defense budget by 2025. The funds will be used to continue developing M-51 submarine launched ballistic missiles and hypersonic missiles. The M-51 submarine launched ballistic missile is 12 meters long and can carry 10 TN75 nuclear warheads, with a maximum range of over 11000 kilometers. The French Ministry of Defense publicly announced at the end of 2023 that it had successfully launched one M-51 submarine launched ballistic missile. In addition, the construction of the third generation ballistic missile nuclear submarine of the French Navy officially started on March 20th this year to replace the current Triumph class ballistic missile nuclear submarine. The first ship is expected to be delivered to the French Navy in 2035, and one will be built every five years thereafter, for a total of four ships. There has been an increase in spending on space and emerging fields. The military budget for space will increase by 15%, reaching 870 million euros; The expenditure in the field of robots and drones will increase by about 12%, reaching 450 million euros; The budget for the field of artificial intelligence has doubled to 300 million euros, including projects for artificial intelligence supercomputers. In June of this year, Sebastian Le Cornout announced at the European Defense Exhibition that France plans to build the most powerful artificial intelligence supercomputer in Europe, and the specific details will be announced in 2025. In addition, other expenditure areas include intelligence gathering, directed energy weapon development, and deep-sea capacity building. The report also stated that France will receive a large number of equipment in 2025, including 14 Rafale fighter jets, 1 Airbus A400 transport plane, 1 defense and intervention frigate, 308 armored vehicles, and 21 refurbished Leclerc main battle tanks. (New Society)