France ramps up production of Caesar self-propelled howitzers amid ongoing fighting in Ukraine
France is ramping up production of Caesar self-propelled artillery mounts. The decision was made against the background of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, as well as to replace the howitzers sent to Kyiv. The government has already allocated the necessary sums for the production of new systems.
According to the French press, the company Arquus, owned by the Swedish Volvo and specializing in military vehicles, has already started assembling new howitzer chassis earlier this week. Production is organized at an enterprise in the city of Limoges, the company undertakes to issue four platforms per month at peak load.
In total, the French Ministry of Defense ordered two batches of self-propelled guns from Nexter, 18 units each, i.e. 36 Caesar self-propelled howitzers in total. In a year, the French would like to see new installations in the troops. The production of howitzers itself has been transferred to work in three shifts, by the end of the year Nexter plans to produce eight guns per month, doubling their production.
Recall that France transferred to Ukraine 18 Caesar self-propelled guns from the presence of its own army and promised to supply 12 more installations. In addition, the French intend to increase the production of 155-mm artillery shells, including for Ukraine. This was announced at the beginning of the month by French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu. Paris intends to supply "Ukrainian" howitzers with ammunition of its own production. Those. and guns and shells will be French. At the same time, Denmark will supply 19 more French self-propelled guns to Kyiv.
As previously reported in the French government, military spending on Ukraine is calculated separately from spending on the French army and France does not intend to reduce them. French President Emmanuel Macron advocates a peaceful end to the conflict, but only if Ukraine wins, the West does not like peace on Russian terms.
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