France “prioritises” war economy and ramps up missile production

The French Ministry of Defense has ordered industrial companies participating in the manufacture of Aster anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic missiles to give priority in their production for these orders in relation to others, Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced on Monday.

“We mobilized administrative police powers for the first time, which allows the prioritization of a certain number of sub-contractors, where civil orders must now take a back seat, after military orders, to give priority to the Aster range,” said the French minister in Calvi, on the occasion of a meeting with his Italian counterpart, Guido Crosetto.

The metallurgical company Aubert and Duval, which produces special steels for both civil aeronautics and submarines or Caesar gun tubes, is particularly targeted by this obligation, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The Aster 15 and 30 missiles are produced by the multinational MBDA based in Paris, cooperation between France and Italy. The two countries have provided an unspecified number of such missiles to the Ukrainians for air defense, but Ukraine is asking for more such missiles to defend itself.

Also, this type of missile was used in the Red Sea against drones fired by Houthi rebels.

At the end of March, Sebastien Lecornu hinted at the threat of such a measure, so that manufacturers could produce more such missiles faster.

MBDA hopes to cut Aster missile production from 42 months in 2022 to “less than 18 months in 2026,” and production would increase 50 percent by then, according to its president, Eric Beranger.

But the industrial organization is not optimal, the rocket components have to “cross the Alps several times” during their manufacture, which does not facilitate the acceleration of production. According to Sebastien Lecornu, there is also an “urgent need to simplify the bureaucracy with customs problems between France and Italy that can delay missile production”.

In a joint letter to MBDA, the two ministers again ask the group “to accelerate production (…) to guarantee the first deliveries starting this year, 2024”. They are also asking MBDA to “step up its efforts” to put a second missile assembly line into operation in Italy in order to “increase production capacity.”

Sebastien Lecornu and Guido Crosetto also announced the signing of a letter of intent for the rapprochement of the land-based armaments industries of the two countries, which “should lead to rapprochements on equipment projects for our land forces”, according to the French minister .

This approach comes to frame the “strategic alliance” established in December between the Franco-German group KNDS and the Italian Leonardo.

Editor: Adrian Dumitru

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