France will purchase more Rafale fighter jets manufactured by Dassault than planned, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday during a speech at a military base in the east of the country, UNN writes with reference to Reuters.
Details
"We are going to increase and accelerate our orders for Rafale," Macron said.
According to Le Monde, Macron spoke at the 116th Air Base in Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur, in Upper Saône, in the center of the French "air police" system, including within NATO, and which also contributed to nuclear deterrence.
"The Air and Space Forces will benefit from an increase in the number of Rafale orders," Macron said. - The Luxeuil base will not only remain (...), but will also benefit from large-scale investments to accommodate the next two Rafale squadrons [about forty aircraft], in order to reach almost 2,000 military and civilian personnel by 2030".
"It is from here today that Mirage aircraft are being sent to Ukraine and Ukrainian pilots are being trained," he said, adding: "We will continue to support Ukraine in the face of an aggressive war".
The French army is "the most effective on our continent," the president added. Our country and our continent will have to continue, equip ourselves, prepare ourselves if we want to avoid war. This is the choice we have made and continue to make".
This base "plays a key role in the security of airspace both on national territory and in the airspace of allies, in particular on the eastern flank of the Alliance", the French President's office explained before this speech. With a squadron equipped with 26 Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets, it contributes to "permanent security", i.e. daily "air surveillance" in French airspace, as well as national, multilateral or NATO missions, in particular over the Baltic States, they explained there.
Addition
At the beginning of March, Emmanuel Macron announced that he had "decided to start a strategic discussion on the protection of our allies on the European continent through our deterrence" in response to a "historic appeal" on this from the future German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
After visiting the Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur base, the French President is due to travel to Berlin on Tuesday afternoon to meet with the outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and then with Friedrich Merz.
