France earmarks Caesar guns for Kyiv under ‘Artillery for Ukraine’ framework

The French-made, truck-mounted Caesar artillery system, shown during a demonstration at Eurosatory 2022. (Photo: Christina Mackenzie/Breaking Defense)

PARIS — The French government announced Thursday it wants to send 78 Caesar truck-mounted guns to Ukraine under a new “Artillery for Ukraine” framework launched by French defense minister Sébastien Lecornu and his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umierov.

The framework is one of five focusing on different military needs — the four others being ground-to-air defense, armored vehicles, air forces and maritime security — is co-presided by France and the United States, and includes 23 countries.

The aim is to quickly supply to the Ukrainian armed forces with the equipment they need to defend themselves as Russia’s invasion nears its second full year. In the long term, the framework aims to help build up Ukraine’s future artillery capacity through “ambitious and innovative” industrial partnerships, according to a French defense ministry statement.

In addition French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that France would deliver about 40 Storm Shadow long-range missiles to Ukraine and confirmed that several hundred air-to-ground AASM (or HAMMER, Highly Agile Modular Munition Extended Range) all-weather missiles would also be delivered.

The Storm Shadow is made by European missiles group MBDA and can be launched from different aircraft. The AASM is manufactured by French company Safran Electronics & Defense. Designed for close air support and deep strike missions, they have been in service with the French Air and Space Force and Navy since 2007.

Lecornu said at a press conference that the AASM missiles “have been adapted so they can be launched from Soviet-era aircraft, in other words not from French Rafales or Mistrals.”

The Caesars are produced by French company Nexter, part of the Franco-German KNDS group. Ukraine has bought six of the 78, which have already been paid for, and these will be delivered in the next few weeks.

Of the remaining 72, France is financing 12 using €50 million ($54 million) from its Ukraine support fund and is seeking partnerships with other countries and/or the European Defense Agency (EDA) to finance procurement of the others.

“We have 60 Caesar canons to finance. I’m launching a call to all our allies,” Lecornu said at the launch of the coalition.

A spokesperson for Nexter told Breaking Defense that the company’s production lines in Bourges and in Roanne (both in central France) were today capable of manufacturing six Caesars a month, up from two a month which was the average before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

This means that Nexter will be manufacturing Caesars at this rate until the end of the year in order to satisfy the French government’s commitment to Ukraine, and by 2025 it aims to have eight Caesars a month coming off its production lines.

The guns fire 155mm shells, which are manufactured at the company’s factory in La Chapelle St. Ursin. The production rate of this ammunition has been upped 50 percent since February 2022 from 40,000 shells a year to 60,000 “and our objective for 2025 is to double this to 120,000,” the spokesperson said.

Lecornu said France would supply 3,000 shells a month to the Ukrainian army from the end of January up from the current 2,000 and only 1,000 at the beginning of the war.

Ukraine is currently being helped by an alliance of 54 countries in the framework of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which coordinates the delivery of bilateral or multilateral weapons to Kyiv.