Emmanuel Macron will lay the first stone of a shell powder factory in Bergerac (Dordogne) on Thursday. He will also meet the leaders of the French arms industry on the subject of rearmament.
The President of the Republic urges defense manufacturers to accelerate the transition to “war economy mode” The new production unit, which will enter service in the first quarter of 2025, will be able to produce up to 1,200 tonnes of powder per year. It will make it possible to fill 500,000 modular charges - which are slipped into the cannon, behind the shell, to propel it - and which will begin to arrive in 2025 in Ukraine, said the Élysée. $60 billion in U.S. aid promised by President Joe Biden has remained blocked in Congress for months.. The Europeans, for their part, are striving to increase their production rates and find alternative resources with purchases of ammunition outside the EU. It notably manufactures the modular charges used to propel the shells in the Caesar cannons, the flagship of French artillery.