The French army is “ready” and preparing for its “toughest” battles

The French army is preparing for its “most difficult” battles, says its chief of staff Pierre Chille, as verbal duels between Paris and Moscow have become more frequent in recent months, two years after the invasion of Ukraine.

The French army is “ready. Whatever the development of the international situation, the French can be convinced: their soldiers will respond,” he assures in a column signed on Tuesday in the daily newspaper Le Monde. “To protect itself from attacks on it and to protect its interests, the French army prepares for the most difficult battles, declares it and demonstrates it.”

French President Emmanuel Macron recently sparked intense debate in France and within NATO by saying he “does not rule out” sending Western troops to Ukraine in the future. Despite the disagreement, Emmanuel Macron then assured that the words he used were “weighted” and “measured”, while declaring a rejection of any “logic of escalation” with Moscow.

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General Schill’s goal is that “the strength demonstrated by our troops will reverse the trend” so that it will “check attacks on France.” France in particular relies on a nuclear deterrent that has “protected its vital interests” as well as “forces trained and compatible with allied armies”, mainly European.

20,000 people can be hired in 30 days

According to Pierre Chille, officially France has the ability to mobilize 20,000 men within thirty days and has the ability to command up to 60,000 men, both French and their allies. The army says it has 121,000 troops in total and can call up 24,000 reservists as reinforcements.

However, since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, some parliamentarians and experts have been concerned about the level of equipment of the French army, which will not allow its ground army to hold out for more than a few months. an event of direct confrontation.

By the end of 2024, Paris hopes to produce between 4 and 5,000 shells per month, up from a thousand before the Russian invasion. But this is only half, or even a third of the shells fired by Moscow in one day across Ukraine.

However, in the event of aggression, France will be confident of the support of NATO, whose Article 5 of the founding treaty stipulates that any attack on one of the member countries must lead to a collective response from the organization.