Can French ‘battle tradition’ lead Europe’s rearmament push? – DW – 04/08/2025 | EUROtoday

France might be pivotal in making Europe’s protection sector autonomous. But the nation should overcome hurdles — and should not go it alone, specialists warn.

French President Emmanuel Macron was already making the case for what he known as “strategic autonomy” again in 2017.

“When it comes to defense, our aim should be for Europe to have the capacity to act autonomously, alongside NATO,” he mentioned throughout a Europe speech at Sorbonne University in Paris.

At the time, his enchantment fell on deaf ears within the European Union, particularly on these of then German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Waking up amid new world realities

Eight years on, the mindset has modified. Russia has been invading Ukraine for 3 years now. More lately, Donald Trump was elected for a second time period as US president. He’s adamant his nation ought to now not be the guarantor of Europe’s safety.

The EU has reacted to the brand new geopolitical actuality by asserting it desires to spend €800 billion ($882 billion) on protection till 2030 beneath a program known as ReArm Europe.

Several EU nations are planning to extend their nationwide protection spending — together with Spain, Italy and France.

Paris’ protection price range of at the moment roughly €50 billion — about 2% of French gross home product (GDP) — is to double by 2030. Economists say that might increase France’s financial development by as much as 1.5%.

Fanny Coulomb, a lecturer at French college Sciences Po in Grenoble, says the nation’s 20,000 protection corporations using about 200,000 persons are the spine of the continent’s protection sector.

“France has players in all segments of the sector. We’ve upheld these skills since the 1960s as opposed to some other countries,” Coulomb, who focuses on protection economics, advised DW.

“We reduced our expenses after the end of the Cold War in the 1990s, but the terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the subsequent war on terror reversed that trend,” she defined.

France nonetheless has ‘battle tradition’

Sylvie Matelly, one other protection knowledgeable, thinks that every one of this has contributed to sustaining a sure “war culture” in French society.

“We need to be able to understand the nature of the threat in order to know which weapons are required,” the director of Paris-based assume tank Institut Jacques Delors advised DW. “Paris has kept up that capacity for military analysis unlike countries such as Germany.”

She additionally mentioned that France has grow to be a forerunner relating to so-called Systems-of-Systems (SoS) functionality, which is a set of distinctive techniques that carry out a typical mission by combining the synergistic impact of a number of techniques,” in accordance with a glossary compiled by the US Defense Acquisition University (DAU) in Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

Matelly says this consists of, for instance, high-tech merchandise just like the French Rafale fighter jets or the Charles de Gaulle plane provider.

“Meanwhile, we have drastically reduced our production of light weapons and ammunitions. We thought it’d be easy to kickstart it again, as these products are less complex,” she added.

But there are hurdles to restart, or increase, army manufacturing.

“We’ll need large amounts of raw materials which are difficult to source, especially since our sanctions on the important minerals supplier Russia after its invasion of Ukraine,” Coulomb mentioned. “What’s more, we have to urgently train more engineers and specialists, as our industrial sectors have constantly been declining over the past few decades.”

And cash could be a problem. France is scuffling with excessive public debt and must drastically deliver down its deficit, which is predicted to exceed 5% this 12 months.

The authorities has thus introduced it might launch a protection mutual fund by way of public funding financial institution Bpifrance. Other monetary merchandise are beneath dialogue to seize French residents’ financial savings.

More investor curiosity after Trump’s conflict with Zelenskyy

Paris-based company Defense Angels is in the meantime anticipating extra inflow this 12 months. Since its 2021 launch, the investor community specialised within the protection sector has injected a complete of just about €2 million into 23 corporations. This 12 months alone, its 90 buyers may fund about 30 startups within the sector.

The conflict between Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy within the White House in late February was a “game-changer,” says Francois Mattens, co-founder and vp of Defense Angels.

That assembly ended with out the deliberate signing of a raw-materials deal and elevated fears the US may cease offering army help to Ukraine. Washington’s assist resumed after a brief break.

Recalling the occasion, Mattens advised DW that many buyers “who used to be hesitant have since called me saying they’d like to go ahead with their investment.”

For him, that curiosity is additional proof of the essential position startups may play.”We need innovation and state of the art technology in the defense sector. Dynamic startups are more fit to yield that than big, inert groups.”

Cailabs can affirm elevated investor curiosity for the reason that conflict within the White House.

The Rennes, France-based startup produces laser based mostly units that present web and protected communication strains — rival merchandise to US billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite tv for pc dishes.

“Our installations are less easy to detect as they don’t rely on radio signals. However, they are still too large to be deployed on the frontline,” Cailabs CEO Jean-Francois Morizur advised DW.

The firm however makes half of its income within the army sector. That share is en path to 80%. “For now, most of our products are sold in the US, but that could soon change, especially when Europe starts to massively invest,” Morizur mentioned

Do the French should be extra modest?

Paris-based Kayrros lately signed its first batch of protection contracts. The startup makes use of synthetic intelligence to analyzes modifications in satellite tv for pc photographs. These modifications may quickly embody troop actions.

“France will play an important role through its expertise regarding space technology, as it has a mini Silicon Valley and lots of excellent research institutions in that field,” Kayrros co-founder Antoine Halff identified to DW.

But all that does not imply France ought to play a lone hand, specialists appear to agree.

And Delphine Deschaux-Dutard, political scientist and deputy director of the Center for Research on International Security and European Cooperation at Grenoble University, is adamant Paris wants to search out the proper tone.

It shouldn’t assume France would be the “new global defense leader replacing the US,” she advised DW as a result of build up a powerful European protection sector was all about cooperation with different nations akin to Germany or Italy.

“We need European champions in order to achieve economies of scale. France needs to be diplomatic and not come across as too haughty.”

Edited by: Uwe Hessler