“Massify” the production of munitions, multiply by 5 the number of reservists for Philippe, stop buying American for Attal… The candidates of the center reveal their ambitions for defense at the Eurosatory arms fair

At Eurosatory, Édouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal pleaded for a massive and more sovereign strengthening of French defense, with more reservists, industrial capacities, munitions and European cooperation, while reducing dependence on the United States.

France must “massify” its “defense apparatus”, said this Tuesday Édouard Philippe visiting the Eurosatory defense exhibition, in Villepinte (Seine-Saint-Denis), as well as Gabriel Attal who advocates “de-Americanizing our defense”.

“The LPM, which was adopted and which will be executed, is a good military programming law. It gives cohesion and depth to our defense system. But we must now worry about the mass: more soldiers, more drones, more ammunition, more hardware, no more software”, declared Édouard Philippe at the end of his visit.

“We must therefore be prepared and consolidate our defense apparatus. We are not at war, but if we want to not be at war for the long term, we need to prepare. (…) We must, for example, increase the number of our reservists. Today, we have an army which is calibrated to 200,000, 250,000 soldiers. We must aim for 200,000 to 250,000 reservists. One reservist for one active soldier,” insisted the president of Horizons.

France currently has less than 50,000 reservists according to the Ministry of the Armed Forces. Édouard Philippe therefore goes much further than the current objectives of the State. The military programming law today targets 80,000 reservists by 2030, then 105,000 in 2035, or one reservist for every two active military personnel.

The mayor of Le Havre also said he was “in favor of reestablishing voluntary military service in volumes which are very much higher than those which prevail today”, referring to “50,000 people” per year.

“Produce more ammunition”

France will also have to “organize (its) economy” to “be able to produce more ammunition”, underlined Edouard Philippe.

Also visiting Eurosatory, Gabriel Attal cited four priorities in terms of defense: “independence”, “anticipation”, “capacity to carry out major projects” and “Europe”.

“We must continue to strengthen our sovereignty, our independence, de-Americanize our defense,” explained the secretary general of Renaissance.

“I will propose that after the 2027 election there can be a review of the programs to identify, program by program, what are the costs, the deadlines, the margins for innovation that we can mobilize. In the same way I will propose that a new white paper be launched”, the last one dating from 2013, added Gabriel Attal.

He advocates “continuing and strengthening major projects, particularly major cooperation projects in Europe”, and said he was in favor of “the construction of an iron dome or the equivalent of an iron dome” for the Old Continent.

In competition within the central bloc, before a possible rapprochement at the start of 2027, the two presidential candidates walked the aisles of the show on the same day, without crossing paths. “I’m here to talk about defense”, “I’m not at war with Gabriel Attal”, Edouard Philippe told the press.