France to lead ‘artillery coalition’ for Ukraine

France will take charge of steering an ammunition and missile production coalition for Ukraine after it managed to half artillery production times, French Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on Thursday (18 January).

The newly-launched ‘Artillery for Ukraine’ coalition “aims to strengthen military support for Kyiv, both in the short and long term”, the French defence ministry announced following a virtual meeting between Lecornu and his Ukrainian counterpart Roustem Umerov.

The step comes after Western countries vowed this autumn to organise weapons production for Kyiv around several ‘capability coalitions’ in a bid to keep up and increase military aid to the war-torn country after almost two years of fighting.

All five coalitions are focused on a specific type of combat capability: ground-air defence, armour, air forces (led by the US and the Netherlands), maritime security, and artillery.

Ukraine is estimated to fire between 5,000-15,000 shells a day, while Russia is said to use at least five times that amount.

Halved production times

Speaking to French radio France Inter, Lecornu said that Caesar canon manufacturer Nexter had halved the production time of the howitzer from 30 to 15 months.

This year, Nexter will be able to produce 78 canons, “which is almost more than the French national inventory”, Lecornu told reporters.

Paris will buy 12 for Ukraine, in addition to six already on their way to Kyiv, Lecornu said

He called on Ukraine’s other partners to “share the bill – it is €280 million, which is accessible for the allies’ budgetary space”, for the other 60 Caesars that will come out of the factory, he said.

As a deal, Lecornu said France would happily participate financially in buying equipment produced in other coalitions, especially on ground-air defence systems.

The French minister also said that the country will manage to put out 3,000 155mm ammunition rounds a month starting this year, which amounts to around 36,000 a year, which is an increase from 2,000 shells a month in 2023.

“We need to switch to a logic of production, which makes it possible to connect the North American and European defence systems, and the Ukrainian army,” Lecornu said.

“It is an important shift that depends on our ability to go into a war economy which is a way of production, management of stocks, organisation of workload, to respond to meet the delivery delays requirements of a customer at war,” he added.

In comments to France Inter, Lecornu criticised the German research group Kiel Insitute’s ranking and methods for placing Paris far behind other European countries as a military supporter of Kyiv.

“What they said is neither reliable nor viable” and they “are mixing up cauliflowers and carrots”, Lecornu said when asked to comment on France’s ranking.

The minister also said some of Ukraine’s partners sent poor equipment to the battlefield.

“Whatever [France] promises is delivered and whatever is delivered has been promised. Everything that is delivered also works,” he said, adding that even though he does not want to criticise “a certain number of our allies (…), it is also our honour to have actually delivered devices which are reliable,” he said.

“Sometimes, certain countries, for domestic political reasons, made a lot of announcements and after that the promises were not followed, or when they were followed, it was with equipment which was sometimes defective,” Lecornu said.

He denied referring to Germany when asked by the interviewer if that was the country on his mind.

[Edited by Alexandra Brzozowski/Nathalie Weatherald]

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