This Thursday, January 18, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu, together with his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov, founded the Artillery Coalition.
The new initiative aims to provide the Ukrainian Armed Forces with the necessary means in the short and long term.
Within the project, the plan is to purchase 78 Caesar ACS, which should be manufactured in 2024.
It is assumed that each of the countries participating in the coalition will contribute to the financing of the project. Thus, France will use 50 million euros from its Support Fund of Ukraine to order 12 out of 78 howitzers. Ukraine funded the production of 6 more ACS.
“What remains is to fund 60 more. This is a call that I pass on to all allies as part of our cooperation in the Ramstein format,” Sebastien Lecornu stated.
France has been a weird player in all of this. Constantly on the phone with Putin, but then one of the first to deliver long range artillery (Cesar).
Was one of the main factors slowing down EUs plan to give Ukraine a million shells, as they demanded it was all produced in EU – but then they were the first to deliver modern IFV/APV or so called “light tanks” that may have opened the door to Challengers and Leopards.
In terms of % of GDP I think they are on the lower end of Europe in terms of deliveries to Ukraine – but then they were the first with the UK to deliver the long range cruise missiles.
And now again, they’re delivering new weaponry.. buuuut would like other European countries to bankroll some of it.
Its a net positive and obviously they’ve contributed greatly with SCALP and Cesar, but it doesn’t feel like a full commitment yet
I have so many questions.
Who else is in the “Artillery Coalition?” I feel like there is already an artillery coalition, of every nation which is supporting Ukraine with artillery in various ways. They are already busily sending all the stuff they have committed. Are they supposed to also fund France’s commitments? Or is *the* Artillery Coalition a different group of nations? And if so, is it reasonable to expect them to be able to cough up the funding for that many CAESARs if they haven’t been able to make such a commitment thus far?
I’m not automatically criticizing this concept, by any means. For all I know, France could be using its leverage as an arms producer to drag countries that have been on the fence so far into supporting Ukraine. That would be awesome. I just am undereducated on this situation so I don’t understand the article.
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Quote:
This Thursday, January 18, French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu, together with his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov, founded the Artillery Coalition.
The new initiative aims to provide the Ukrainian Armed Forces with the necessary means in the short and long term.
Within the project, the plan is to purchase 78 Caesar ACS, which should be manufactured in 2024.
It is assumed that each of the countries participating in the coalition will contribute to the financing of the project. Thus, France will use 50 million euros from its Support Fund of Ukraine to order 12 out of 78 howitzers. Ukraine funded the production of 6 more ACS.
“What remains is to fund 60 more. This is a call that I pass on to all allies as part of our cooperation in the Ramstein format,” Sebastien Lecornu stated.
France has been a weird player in all of this. Constantly on the phone with Putin, but then one of the first to deliver long range artillery (Cesar).
Was one of the main factors slowing down EUs plan to give Ukraine a million shells, as they demanded it was all produced in EU – but then they were the first to deliver modern IFV/APV or so called “light tanks” that may have opened the door to Challengers and Leopards.
In terms of % of GDP I think they are on the lower end of Europe in terms of deliveries to Ukraine – but then they were the first with the UK to deliver the long range cruise missiles.
And now again, they’re delivering new weaponry.. buuuut would like other European countries to bankroll some of it.
Its a net positive and obviously they’ve contributed greatly with SCALP and Cesar, but it doesn’t feel like a full commitment yet
I have so many questions.
Who else is in the “Artillery Coalition?” I feel like there is already an artillery coalition, of every nation which is supporting Ukraine with artillery in various ways. They are already busily sending all the stuff they have committed. Are they supposed to also fund France’s commitments? Or is *the* Artillery Coalition a different group of nations? And if so, is it reasonable to expect them to be able to cough up the funding for that many CAESARs if they haven’t been able to make such a commitment thus far?
I’m not automatically criticizing this concept, by any means. For all I know, France could be using its leverage as an arms producer to drag countries that have been on the fence so far into supporting Ukraine. That would be awesome. I just am undereducated on this situation so I don’t understand the article.