Will France lose its military leadership in Europe? As global military spending skyrockets, surpassing $2 trillion for the first time in 2021, Germany plans to spend 2% of its GDP on it in the coming years.
France, which aims to achieve this same target of 2% by 2025, will have to go further if it wants to maintain its position as Europe’s leading army.
There is no quantified target given by the Head of State, however. The next military programming law, which should set the course for military spending until 2030, will begin to be drafted in 2023.
The truth, however, is that France, like the great powers, has been rearming for several years. Between 2019 and 2025, 295,000 million euros should be dedicated to Defense. That is 23% more than in the previous period 2014-2018.
From 32.7 billion euros in 2017, the army budget has exceeded 40 billion this year and is expected to increase by 3 billion euros a year until 2025 to reach 50 billion in 2025.
Modernization needs, the return of the Russian threat, threats from cyberspace, maritime defense… France has made a special effort in recent years to catch up.
After years of underinvestment compared to the great military powers, the French budgetary effort of its last years is beginning to be seen internationally.
According to Sipri, a think tank specializing in military spending, the country moved up two places in 2021 from 8th to 6th in the world for its defense budget.
Behind the overwhelming dominance of the United States (40% of world military spending with only 800 billion dollars), we find the challenger China (293.4 billion), India (76.6 billion), the United Kingdom (68.3 billion), Russia (65.9 billion) and France (56.6 billion).
But the next few years will be turning points, particularly in terms of military equipment. The aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle celebrated her 20th anniversary last year. The Rafale, in service since 2006, is preparing for a facelift in 2025 with a new F4 model.
But it is the French army of the future that will have to draw up the future military programming law.
Last April, images of the future nuclear aircraft carrier, the PANG, were released. 40 meters longer than the current Charles-de-Gaulle, 50% more powerful, its development cost alone should reach 5,000 million euros for its commissioning in 2038.
But the largest and most complex project is that of the future combat aircraft (SCAF). Announced five years ago, this Franco-German SCAF that was going to be developed in collaboration by Dassault and Airbus is for the moment nailed to the ground. The two industrialists who oppose the management of the project.
A disagreement that has already caused the project to take a long time. According to Dassault, future combat aircraft should not fly before 2050. The cost of the program would be between 50,000 and 80,000 million euros. Enough to inflate defense budgets for years to come.
Source: BFM TV
