France is seeking to quadruple its stockpile of kamikaze drones and drastically expand missile arsenals by the end of the decade, Politico reported on Friday. A draft military planning law said that the preparations were being done to get ready for a “war economy.”
A 64-page-long document set to be presented by the government next week stated that French rulers intend to focus on expanding their munitions arsenals rather than the armed forces themselves. The ruling class has been learning, taking its lessons from those of the Ukraine and Middle East conflicts, which have been depleting Western arms stocks at an alarming rate.
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The stocks of loitering munitions such as kamikaze drones are set to grow by 400%, Safran-made AASM Hammer guided bombs by 240%, and Aster and Mica missiles by 30% by 2030, Politico reported. -RT
The push toward stockpiling munitions is said to be one shared with other European nations as a way to remove reliability on the United States. France has accused the U.S. of being unredictable and of course, it has been starting wars every few months it seems. France wants to limit its dependence on U.S. weapons and munitions because of the instability.
“We don’t want to depend on the dominance, let’s say on China, or we don’t want to be too much exposed to the unpredictability of the US,” French ruler Emmanuel Macron added.
Paris has also apparently shelved the Eurodrone, which is a joint long-range reconnaissance program with Germany, Italy, and Spain, with no funds allocated to the much-delayed project. France is, however, considering studies into a successor to the Leclerc main battle tank, which has been in service since 1992, according to the report.
Moscow has consistently criticized NATO military build-up, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accusing the bloc of “seriously preparing for war against Russia and, in fact, not even hiding it.” Russia has also dismissed NATO members’ claims that it could attack the bloc within several years as “nonsense” and fearmongering. -RT
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