France

[I]n times of war,” French defense minister Sébastien Lecornu said, “when we need to go fast and take risks, we need a different approach.”

In the transition to a war economy, the French armed forces will replenish their ammunition stocks, which will now be assessed in light of the potential for a major engagement. “But today, we need to return to good household management and, to continue with the metaphor, have a sufficient stock of groceries to hold out.” “We have instances of industrial espionage over the past few years which entails stealing a technology to take it home. “This need for speed is not just the thinking in France,” Lecornu noted. The minister noted in the meeting that “since February 24, the notions of risks and dangers have evolved considerably and require a change of approach” to acquisition. Emmanuel Chiva, the new head of the DGA, and his deputy, Thierry Carlier, have received a mandate to work with manufacturers to figure out a process that would simplify procedures whilst not sacrificing the requirement for quality. Lecornu wants manufacturers to relocate their subcontractors in France, or at least the European Union (EU), so as to not be dependent on foreign know-how and to protect French know-how. Each option on a piece of equipment is an obstacle to the speed of manufacturing,” he warned. To meet the requirements for greater quantities of materiel, the DGA Procurement Agency and the armies “must formulate requests that are simpler to carry out. This evolution of the threat implies a necessary adaptation of our production tool.” There the French president exhorted industry to “go faster, think differently about production rates, ramp-up […] in order to be able to more quickly reconstitute [stocks of] equipment indispensable for our armed forces, for our allies and for those whom we want to help.” The defense minister, Sébastien Lecornu, told media afterward that normally the acquisition processes is onerous and complicated, a luxury of peacetime.