By Pierre Tran
Paris – France and Europe could boost their autonomy by increasing cooperation in the defense technology and industrial base rather than rely on the U.S. military umbrella, with the latter seen as increasingly uncertain, a French parliamentary report said.
The authors, parliamentarians Jean-Charles Larsonneur and Jean-Louis Thiériot, presented their detailed 120-page report, The Defense Industry – Provider of Strategic Autonomy in Europe?” to the defense committee of the lower house National Assembly May 15.
The report closes with no fewer than five pages of policy recommendations, seeking to stimulate public and political debate ahead of the June 9 election for Members of the European Parliament, the elected arm of the European Union (E.U.).
The French parliamentary report was presented as Russian troops seized ground in the Kharkiv region, northern Ukraine, and U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv May 14, seeking to show support for Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The shipment of American-built weapons to Kyiv also resumed that week, after a long awaited congressional approval of a package of arms and ammunition worth $61 billion.
In the first part of the report, the authors reflect on the weight of domestic and international politics on European arms procurement, namely the days of the peace dividend are over. That part includes an established picture of the duplication of arms programs in Europe.
The second part sets out the case on how to spend it – effectively calling for a Buy European Act – rather than simply calling for an increase in military budgets.
“The future of our collective security, the defense of the ‘free world,’ will depend in large part on our capacity to strengthen our defense industry,” the report said.
The report pitched “an action plan to increase the contribution of the defense industry to the strategic autonomy in Europe,” the rapporteurs said. “These proposals have just one aim: that France and Europe remain actors in History and do not become trembling witnesses.
“As long as the European nations supply themselves mainly with equipment from the United States, the European armed forces will remain under the operational tutelage of the United States,” the report said.
Belgium and France Cooperate
Industrial partnership was advancing, the French armed forces ministry said May 21, with Belgium extending its procurement of French weapons to the Serval light armored troop carrier, and Caesar artillery.
That procurement of Serval and Caesar was the second phase of the Belgian Capacité Mobilité (CaMo) land arms program, with the first phase consisting of orders for the Griffon VBMR heavy armored troop carrier and Jaguar combat and reconnaissance vehicle. Those latter two vehicles are part of the French army’s Scorpion program.
John Cockerill Defense, a Belgian company held by a French national, was acquiring Arquus and had given significant commitments on its activities and sites in France, the ministry said.
Volvo, a Swedish truck company, is in exclusive talks on the sale of Arquus, its French unit, with Cockerill. Arquus builds light and medium armored vehicles.
“The merger deal is moving ahead well, and significant commitments have been given on employment,” the ministry said. The two nations will have a high level of supervision after the merger.
A Belgian vehicle assembly line for the CaMo project opened in April.
KNDS, a Franco-German joint venture, would inaugurate next week in Belgium the production line for 155mm artillery shells, the ministry said.
The announcements were made following a meeting, here, between French armed forces minister, Sébastien Lecornu, and his Belgian counterpart, Ludivine Dedonder.
FN Herstal, a Belgian company which builds vehicle armed turrets, is seen as a potential partner in the industrial consolidation led by Cockerill.
Cornerstone of U.S. Arms Sales
The parliamentary rapporteurs referred to a point made by Jean-Pierre Maulny, deputy director of Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques, a think tank, that 63 percent of E.U. military spending went on U.S. arms.
Those orders for American weapons, notably the F-35 fighter, were the price Europe had to pay for protection under the U.S. umbrella.
“Massive procurement from the United States reflects the attachment of European nations to the maintenance of the American security guarantee, which is the cornerstone of their defence policy,” the report said.
South Korea and Turkey were also significant “third party nations” selling into a fragmented European market for land weapons, adding pressure to consolidate that sector, the report said.
Meanwhile, European defense was seen as “a guarantee of second rank and incomplete.”
For France, the report offered policy guidance to rely less on industrial cooperation with Germany, and seek closer ties with other European nations, notably Poland and Sweden.
The perceived importance of European sovereignty and industrial policy could be seen in remarks by the chief executive of MBDA, Eric Béranger, who pointed up a swift delivery of British-built cruise missiles to arm Ukrainian fighter jets against Russian forces.
“We were able to integrate Storm Shadows on fighters of the Ukrainian air force in a few weeks, and not in several years, because we were the ‘design authorities’ and we did not need to ask for authorization from a third party which could have refused or just made us wait,” he told the rapporteurs.
Foreign sale of the French version of that missile has been a sensitive issue, as deliveries of the Scalp to Egypt and other export clients were previously held up, with the U.S. withholding authorization to ship American components under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Those missiles were eventually shipped.
The chair of the parliamentary committee, Thomas Gassilloud, welcomed the “particularly dense” report, which he noted had been distributed the day before, giving members of parliament time to read and consider the contents before its formal presentation.
Election Time
A campaign leaflet for François-Xavier Bellamy, a candidate of Les Republicans, a conservative party, for the European parliament elections, includes a call for strengthening the defense industry in Europe, to give the services “the means to defend France.”
That center-right candidate is backed by a retired four star general, Christophe Gomart, a former special forces commander and former head of the Direction du Renseignement Militaire (DRM), the military intelligence agency.
The French parliamentary report was presented as Russian troops seized ground in the Kharkiv region, northern Ukraine, and U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv May 14, seeking to show support. The shipment of American-built weapons also resumed that week, after the congressional approval of a $61 billion package of arms and ammunition.
There will also be a U.S. presidential election Nov. 5, with contenders Joe Biden and Donald Trump seeking votes to return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
The prospect of election of Donald Trump was seen as significant for European allies – “a moment of truth,” the French report said.
“Either it will be an electric shock leading to a European collective awareness to strengthen our strategic autonomy,” an interlocutor told the rapporteurs, “or it leads to yet more procurement of American military equipment to hold on to the American umbrella as part of a favored bilateral tie.”
Cooperation As Tool – And Hindrance
European cooperation was a necessity, in view of the high cost of arms programs, said François Lureau, a consultant and former procurement chief. The Rafale will be the last national fighter program for France, which lacks the means to build a successor on its own.
“It is important to have the tools for cooperation,” he said. The tools would effectively be the organization setting policy aims and managing cross-border cooperative programs.
The European Defense Agency (EDA) looked like the most fitting organization to pursue greater European production of arms as an alternative to dependence on the U.S. and other third party nations, he said.
It was important to have the political weight of the European Council, a policy setting institution, and senior military officers and procurement officials to sit on the cooperative organization, he said.
There was certainly no need to set up more organizations, or to assign the task of program management to the European Commission, he said.
The parliamentary report called for closer ties between Britain and the E.U. in industrial cooperation, and a U.K. membership of the EDA would help that.
Lureau supported that idea, pointing out that non-E.U. members Switzerland and Norway were attached to the EDA, that the best approach was “ad hoc and pragmatic,” and that membership would require London to pay its contribution and not expect to direct the agency.
Competition was essential within the cooperative approach, he said, as the French nuclear deterrence was the only program too sensitive to be opened up for open tender.
There was cooperation at MBDA between Britain and France with their centers of excellence, he said, but there was room for closer work at the European company, which pursued mainly national programs.
The national arms authorities needed to adopt a closer cooperative approach to raise MBDA above 50 percent of collaborative output, he said, but the procurement offices in London and Paris lacked that appetite for common programs.
There was the risk of cooperation being used to promote interests of national companies, relegating the importance of capabilities to a lower rung, said Hélène Masson, senior research fellow at Fondation de Recherche Stratégique, a think tank, the parliamentary report said.
The number of times parts for the Aster crossed the Alps showed the “geographical return” tied to work shared between the French and Italian units of MBDA, business daily La Tribune reported, the rapporteurs said. This form of cooperation partly explained the 42 months needed to build and deliver the surface-to-air missile in 2022, the report said.
Exports To Middle East Seen As Risky
The perceived importance of pursuing Europe as the home market for the defense industrial base could be seen with the weight of sales to the Middle East, notably export deals sealed for the Rafale fighter.
Sale of the Rafale accounted for almost 78 percent of French arms exports in 2022, the report said, and “non-European nations” made 178 orders of the fighter out of the 193 in the period 2019-2023. The latter nations included Egypt, India, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
The UAE order alone accounted for 80 Rafale, the largest foreign deal for the fighter. Yet Abu Dhabi was strengthening ties to China, the report said, such that Washington was concerned.
Those deals amounted to a “dependence on grand export,” the report said, and reflected few sales within Europe, which meant a lack of support for strategic autonomy on the continent.
Middle East nations were moving toward a more “transactional” approach with France in their export deals, the report said, and would not hesitate to switch to new nations such as South Korea, or “strategic competitors,” such as China.
“In this context, it is important to further develop our exports to European nations, all the more so at a time of increased defense spending in Europe,” the report said, citing an official of the directorate general for international and strategic relations (DGRIS), a branch of the armed forces ministry.
The Middle East and India accounted for 65 percent of French arms orders in 2022, and compared to 78 percent in 2015, the report said.
French arms exports into Europe have grown since 2017, the report said, accounting for an average 31 percent of foreign deals between 2018-2022, spiking up to 45 percent in 2019. That compared to an average 7.6 percent between 2013-2017.
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