French Armies Minister Sebastien Lecornu (R) and Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov pose during Reznikov’s official visit at the Hotel de Brienne, the French Ministry of Armed Forces, in Paris on January 31, 2023. (Photo by JULIE SEBADELHA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
PARIS — Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov came to France on his first official visit this week with a shopping list and has returned home with a nicely filled basket, at least for now, notably including a promised 12 more Caesar truck-mounted artillery guns from Nexter and a complete medium-range air defense system from Thales.
The procurements are all being financed through a special €200 million ($219.6 million) French government fund for Ukraine of which half still remains “to enable Ukraine to buy from French industry,” French President Emmanuel Macron said earlier this week.
The additional Caesars and the defense system, which includes a Ground Master 200 radar known as the GM200, were announced earlier this week as Reznikov held a joint press conference with his French counterpart, Sébastien Lecornu, in Paris.
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But while the artillery and the air defense systems were certainly on Reznikov’s wish list, they weren’t at the top – spots not even held by French tanks or fighter jets. Those places were reserved for more mundane but crucial ingredients to long-term defense: ammunition for and maintenance of French equipment already in Ukraine and training of Ukrainian soldiers.
On the ammunition front, Lecornu announced a “new gift was signed” last week, and that an agreement had been reached with his Australian counterpart Richard Marles, also in Paris this week, to jointly produce the 155mm shells for Ukraine that can be used by French, German and US artillery systems. This is a pre-existing arrangement between France and Australia, in which Thales Australia supplies the raw material used to make explosives to Eurenco France. Once transformed into gunpowder, Eurenco supplies Nexter which then manufactures the 155mm shells.
“Several thousand shells” will be manufactured for Kiev, with first deliveries expected by the end of March, in the agreement “worth several million (Australian) dollars,” said Marles.
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When it comes to training, Lecornu announced that 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers would be trained in France by the summer. One-hundred-fifty French instructors also would be sent to Poland by the end of this month to train up to 600 Ukrainian soldiers a month, up from the 280 being trained today.
The new Caesars would aid in another one of Reznikov’s priorities: ground systems. The artillery systems will be delivered directly from Nexter factories and not be taken out of the French Army’s own inventory and will take Ukraine’s total functioning systems to 48. Eighteen others were gifted by France last year, but one is now out of action. Denmark is gifting the 19 it had ordered from France, according to Danish Defense Minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen.
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It now takes Nexter around 12 months to manufacture a Caesar gun from start to finish, down from 24 months prior to 2022, the company says. Four Caesar guns come off the production line every month.
In the wake of the US and Germany promising delivery of Abrams and Leopard tanks, respectively, there’s been speculation about whether France would provide Kyiv its Leclerc tanks. Reznikov confirmed that there had been talks about the Leclerc tanks “but the problem is with maintenance.” He did, however, credit the French for its decision to deliver AMX-10 armored vehicles to Ukraine, which “had had a snowball effect and made the others decide” to deliver Leopard and Abrams tanks.
“France has [shown] leadership on other materials,” he remarked, without going into details.
As for Reznikov’s air defense entry on the wish list, the GM200 radar “is a very good tactical radar if you need to protect specific patches of territory,” according to an independent radar specialist who spoke to Breaking Defense on condition of anonymity. The French government did not say how many systems were Kyiv-bound.
“It’s a really, really good system, one of the best radars in its class, able to detect aircraft, helicopters, drones, cruise missiles, you get the lot,” they said. The specialist added that it was also a tough radar to jam and added that Ukraine “needs more of them.”
Apart from the GM200 radar, Lecornu announced that discussions were currently underway with allies to “enable sufficient stocks” of the Crotale NG air defense system to be sent to Ukraine. The Crotale is another Thales product that Reznikov said “destroys 100% of targets.” Unlike the GM200, which is a mid-range system, the Crotale is short-range.
In discussing air defenses, Reznikov took the opportunity to bring up the potential for Western fighter jet transfers, a possibility that’s long been discussed but recently dismissed by US President Joe Biden. During the press conference, Reznikov mentioned that “tactical aircraft are part of air defense capabilities.”
Lecornu indicated France was open to the consideration, noting that Macron had previously said there is “no taboo concerning combat aircraft.” But he said that as for every other request, France would first check that gifting material to Ukraine would not lead to a “critical deterioration in our own defense”; that it was useful and useable, and that the doctrine of use was limited to defense.
Reznikov stressed that weapons given to Ukraine “are only used for defense purposes” and explained that “we are completely transparent” on how the equipment is used. “We are in the NATO LOGFAS [Logistics Functional Area Services] system so everyone knows where the equipment is, and all the defense attachés can check. It is important that all is transparent for our partners,” he stressed.
Reznikov appeared optimistic the hesitation over the West giving fighter jets may dissipate, as it had with tanks.
Reznikov said, with some amusement, that “very first requests have been met with a ‘no’. Then details are looked at, then soldiers are trained, then the material is transferred to us. We’ve been through all these phases for almost everything.”
Referring specifically to Ukraine’s request for fighter aircraft, he said “So, I have confidence in the future, but there must first be a leader.”
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