On January 31, during a joint press conference with Oleksiï Reznikov, his Ukrainian counterpart, Minister of Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu announced that France would deliver 12 CAESArs to Ukraine [Camions équipés d’un système d’artillerie de 155 mm] Extras as well as a Ground Master 200 Radar [GM200] designed by Thales and capable of detecting an enemy aircraft within a 250 km radius.
Unlike the 18 CAESArs previously ceded to the Ukrainian Army [dont un est hors d’usage]the 12 just pledged by Mr Lecornu will be funded from the €200 million support fund set up under the 2023 Finance Act.
Therefore, a priori, these CAESArs should not be decommissioned from the army staff… At least if the production rate of Nexter allows it… “We do not rule out a tiling solution with our own stocks,” said the Minister of the Armed Forces.
As a reminder, the Army initially had 76 CAESArs. And the 18 it gave to its Ukrainian counterpart will be matched to the closest entity thanks to a €85m deal notified to Nexter in July 2022.
The support fund will also be used to supply the GM 200, an order for which will be officially placed with Thales on February 1, as well as to finance several priorities of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, starting with the maintenance of military equipment already sold by France.
So Mr. Lecornu indicated that “several tens of millions of euros” will be released to finance the maintenance of the operational status [MCO] Ukrainian CAESars. However, he did not specify whether the 19 CAESAr 8×8 that Denmark has pledged to Ukraine will be taken into account.
press conference from @SebLecornu 🇬🇧, Minister of the Armed Forces and his Ukrainian counterpart @oleksiireznikov 🇺🇦⤵️ https://t.co/zPivObuffe
– Ministry of Armies 🇫🇷 (@Armees_Gouv) January 31, 2023
In addition to the MCO, another urgent need of Mr. Reznikov concerns the supply of ammunition. On this point, France and Australia announced on January 30 that they had reached an agreement to jointly produce “several thousand 155mm shells” for Ukraine.
In addition, Mr. Lecornu also mentioned efforts to provide missiles for the two Crotale NG systems that were recently delivered to Kyiv. “This material will help us get closer to our victory day. The rattlesnakes destroy 100% of the targets, so closing the Ukrainian skies is very important,” Reznikov said.
Finally, the Minister for the Armed Forces announced that 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers will be trained in France by next summer… and 600 more will be trained monthly by 150 French soldiers stationed in Poland in the coming weeks. However, he did not specify whether these trainings are being conducted as part of the European Union military assistance mission in support of Ukraine. [EUMAM Ukraine].
However, supplying tanks to Kyiv is out of the question. On this point, Mr. Lecornu pointed out that after Mr. Macron’s decision to send AMX-10RCs to Ukraine, France paved the way for the delivery of British Challenger 2, German Leopard 2 and American Abrams.
Regarding fighter jets, which Kyiv is now urging, Mr Reznikov has not made a “concrete” request to France, while Mr Macron has not ruled out the possible sale of the recently decommissioned Mirage 2000C. “We didn’t talk about the type of aircraft,” he said. “We just emphasized that tactical aviation is a component of anti-aircraft defense” and “we need to strengthen our capabilities to defend our airspace,” he added.