The step could be taken.
French Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu announced on Tuesday that he “does not rule out” using requisitions to speed up production.
These requisitions could concern personnel, stocks or production tools or require manufacturers to give priority to military needs over civilian needs.
“For the first time, I do not exclude using what the law allows the minister and the general delegate for armaments (DGA) to do, that is to say if the account was not there in terms of production rates and deadlines, to make requisitions if necessary or to exercise the right of prioritization", affirmed the minister during a press conference in the presence of all the chiefs of staff, to take stock of the French arms strategy in its support for Ukraine.
An information report on the war economy, delivered in spring 2023, already indicated that industrialists would be called upon to supply an industrial reserve, and raised the possibility of a “requisition” to “allow the intensification of the production ".
“Emergency” on certain deliveries
This war effort is justified in particular by a tense “security context”, pointed out the minister.
“The war in Ukraine reopens us again in a form of a Cold War period, (…) under the backdrop of a Russian nuclear vault,” insisted Sébastien Lecornu.
🔴 “The war in Ukraine reopens us in a form of cold war”
Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of the Armed Forces pic.twitter.com/L6UeKEpA6R
— LCI (@LCI) March 26, 2024
The minister also took stock of current and future arms orders in "segments in which we have significant needs", including "for Ukraine": anti-tank missiles, short-range surface-to-air missiles, otherwise called Mistrals, but also long range, Aster missiles, as well as ammunition for Caesar cannons, he listed.
For all these weapons and equipment, orders are “firm” and “in progress”, with credits “totally available”, he explained, highlighting “significant sums”, notably 400 Aster missiles ordered in total, quantified at “practically a billion euros”.
But certain deliveries are expected quickly: “There is an urgency (…) to have a certain number of segments delivered”, in certain cases “as early as this summer”, insisted the minister, without detailing all the orders concerned.
Also read: Ramp-up, relocation… How France is preparing its military industry for the war economy
Sébastien Lecornu more broadly warned against "the advent of this security context of great tensions between powers", and also mentioned the danger of "the terrorist threat", after the attack in Moscow on Friday evening, which caused almost 140 deaths according to the latest report.
The minister reported an “Islamist atmosphere which connects between different geographical zones”, noting the development of “a large geographical strip being completely contaminated by terrorism”, from the Sahel to the Caucasus via the Middle East. East.