Macron speeds up Rafale warplane orders as France invests in nuclear deterrence

LUXEUIL-LES-BAINS, France – President Emmanuel Macron said France would order additional Rafale warplanes in the coming years and invest nearly €1.5 billion (S$2.2 billion) into one of its airbases to equip its squadrons with the latest nuclear missile technology.

Jolted by

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

and US President Donald Trump’s more confrontational stance towards traditional Western allies, European countries are increasing defence spending and seeking to reduce dependence on the United States.

Mr Macron, who has initiated a doubling of the French defence budget over the course of his two mandates, has recently set an even higher target, saying the country should increase defence spending to 3 per cent to 3.5 per cent of economic output from the current 2 per cent.

He has also

offered to extend the protection

of France’s nuclear weapons, the so-called nuclear umbrella, to other European countries.

“We haven’t waited for 2022 or the turning point we’re seeing right now to discover that the world we live in is ever more dangerous, ever more uncertain, and that it implies to innovate, to bulk up and to become more autonomous,” he said.

“I will announce in the coming weeks new investments to go further than what was done over the past seven years,” he told soldiers at one of the country’s historical airbases in Luxeuil, eastern France, on March 18.

Mr Macron said he had decided to turn the base, famed in military circles as the home of American volunteer pilots during World War I, into one of France’s most advanced bases in its nuclear deterrence programme.

The base will host the latest Rafale F5 fighter jets, which will carry France’s next-generation ASN4G hypersonic nuclear-armed cruise missiles, which are intended to be operational from 2035 onwards, French officials said.

The French air force will also receive additional Dassault-made Rafale warplanes, in part to replace the Mirage jets France has transferred to Ukraine, Mr Macron said.

“We are going to increase and accelerate our orders for Rafales,” he said.

French officials said the €1.5 billion was part of the already approved multi-year military spending plan. It remained unclear how France would finance a massive increase in military spending at a time when it is trying to reduce its budget deficit.

Mr Macron’s speech came on the day the German Parliament approved a massive increase in military spending. REUTERS