France ramps up weapons production for Ukraine

Ukrainian rescuers working in a residential building damaged after Russian strikes in Kharkiv. Pic/AP

French manufacturers have reduced the manufacturing times for some of the weapons systems they supply to Ukraine by half or more, as France increasingly switches away from its previous policy of dipping into its own military stocks to support the war effort against Russia's invasion, France's defense minister said in an interview published Thursday.

"The logic of ceding materiel taken from the armies' stocks is reaching its end," the minister, Sebastien Lecornu, said. "From now on, the solution is to directly connect French defense industries with the Ukrainian army."

He cited the Caesar self-propelled 155 mm howitzer, made in France by Nexter, as an example of how French defence contractors are adopting a war footing. Caesars are among an array of Western-supplied artillery systems that have given Ukrainian gun crews an edge, especially when paired with high-precision munitions, against Russian artillery batteries.

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No of Caesars France is to make this year

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