France to provide EUR 85 million to replenish Caesar self-propelled gun stocks transferred to Ukraine

The Minister of the French Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, made a statement during the hearing of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense, BFMT reports.

"A package of 85 million euros will allow us to carry out this replenishment, the idea is not to harm the educational and training plans of our gunners," the minister said.

Before the start of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, the French army had 76 Caesar self-propelled guns - 155-mm howitzers with a firing range of 40 kilometers. France transferred 18 of them to Ukraine.

As noted, the high-intensity war in Ukraine highlighted the shortcomings of the French defense apparatus, in particular with regard to ammunition stocks. Lecornu believes that "from 2023 we should be able to replenish a certain amount of long-range ammunition."