Sebastien Lecornu, the French Minister of the Armed Forces, announced this Tuesday March 26, during a press conference, that he did not rule out using requisitions to accelerate production in order to supply the French army and provide support to Ukraine. This would be a first in the war economy that the government wishes to implement.
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Sébastien Lecornu had until now delivered good and bad points to French industrialists, but this time, he used the stick: “ I do not exclude using what the law allows, he indicated, that is to say, if the account is not there in terms of production rate, to make requisitions. »
Unprecedented firmness. Requisitions are in fact permitted by the military programming law adopted in the fall. Ultimate recourse, they can apply to personnel, stocks and production tools.
Mr. Lecornu immediately qualified his remarks, specifying that he could initially give priority to military command over civilian needs. That he could also require manufacturers to have more stocks of spare parts to produce faster.
In the sights of the Minister of the Armed Forces one company in particular, the missile maker MBDA. The Aster 30 surface-to-air defense missiles are trickling out of Franco-Italian workshops, and orders placed last year are still pending.
However, these strategic weapons are requested by theUkraine and the French navy, which has fired 22 in recent weeks, to shoot down Houthi drones in the Red Sea.
To rereadFrance-Russia: verbal escalation and strategic signaling