France decided to supply the Caesar self-propelled howitzer to the Ukrainian Army when the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out, the French Army has supplied a good number of these advanced artillery guns to Ukraine.
But after supplying at least 12 artillery gun systems (and six more are planned to be supplied in the upcoming months) to Ukraine now the french army did not have enough Caesar cannons for their own needs. The reason for the guns shortage with the French Army is French President Emmanuel Macron, who “was too supportive for Kiev”.
According to information provided by Defense Arabia, the French Ministry of Defense began to feel the alarming shortage and demanded the immediate conclusion of contracts for the supply of Caesar self-propelled guns to supplement the equipment of the country’s army.
Although, the defense manufacturer Nexter is ready to supply the French Army with new Caesar guns; however, with current production capacity, the delivery of 18 Caesars could take up to 4-5 years.
Paris wants its defense industry to be able to rapidly increase production of weapons, in response to the situation caused by the Ukraine crisis. But according to the manufacturer Nexter, it takes them 18 months to produce a batch of such advanced weapons.
Before the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the French army had 76 155 mm Caesar self-propelled howitzers, these guns have the maximum striking range of 40 km.
Recently, French Defense Minister Sebastian Locorno told the French Senate that an additional budget of 85 million euros would be added, to replace the 18 Caesar cannons of the French Army, that has been removed from the service of the French Army and has been delivered as part of military aid to Ukraine.
Earlier in February, then French Prime Minister Jean Castex, signed a contract worth 600 million euros with Nexter company, to develop an upgraded version of the Caesar NG self-propelled howitzer, with the total order of 33 guns. The Caesar NG version deliveries to the French Army will start from 2026.
Now according to some military experts, in the context of the outbreak of arms crisis in the French armed forces, it is likely that Paris will not continue to supply CAESAR artillery systems to Ukraine.