The demonstration of force marked Western chancelleries: on September 3, in a large-scale military parade, Beijing showed “advances in all areas”. The threat is barely veiled: China and its allies are imposing their hard power on the world, in particular with their deep strike capabilities. Europe will have to work harder in terms of sovereign military equipment to catch up.
Europe must show its muscles
In fact, this coercive power is sorely lacking in Europe, whose strategic framework has until now been based on its defensive capabilities. To reverse this trend, the EU has included, among the seven critical capabilities of its white paper for European defense, deep strikes which, unlike defensive means, make it possible to take the initiative through decisive blows inside enemy territory. The recent lessons of Ukraine and Pakistan seem well identified by European executives, while industrialists have not remained inactive.
In 2024, France proposed to its European partners the European Long-Range Strike Approach (ELSA) initiative, which aims to stimulate Member States and their industrial champions based on their technological excellence. Several projects – some of which have reached maturity – are on the table. In France, for example, MBDA already offers the Land Cruise Missile (LCM), with a range of more than 1,000 km.
This land-based cruise missile is an adaptation of the naval cruise missile (MdCN) which has proven itself in operations, and which will soon be brought up to the latest technical standards. On the industrial level, this land-sea synergy (and even both “surface” and “underwater”, the missile can be fired from these two environments) would allow obvious economies of scale during production, and cost control. So many arguments likely to appeal to the European Commission or partners like Poland, linked to France by a recent Letter of Intent on the subject.
We also have to put our hands in our pockets, and only States can do that
Longer-term projects are also being studied, such as the Franco-British Stratus system, available in two versions, the Stratus LO (Low Observable) and the Stratus RS (Rapid Strike). If this missile seems to arouse the enthusiasm of political decision-makers in Paris, London and Rome, the launch of the development is still awaited. In any case, only projects like these, 100% European, will be able to guarantee Europe its strategic autonomy.
According to Éric Bélanger, CEO of MBDA, a company emblematic of a convergence of European interests, sovereignty in this area is based on the holding of “brains which know objects, which design them and which are then capable of modifying them as much as necessary”. But according to him, “we have everything we need in Europe, all the technical capabilities, all the brains necessary to do without the United States. » But we also have to put our hands in our pockets and only States can do that.
Put your hand in your wallet
Because the private sector has already taken a large part. Since 2022, he has increased financial efforts to respond to the call from President Macron who then asked to move to “a war economy (…) in which we will have to move faster, think differently about rhythms, increases in workload, margins, to be able to reconstitute more quickly what is essential for our armed forces, for our allies.
Tapping into their treasuries, companies have considerably increased their production capacities, opening new lines, recruiting numerous specialists who have become rare due to reindustrialization. MBDA thus invested 2.5 billion euros in its production apparatus and its strategic stocks, while KNDS devoted 600 million euros to tripling its production of Caesar cannon, and released 120 million to replenish its powder stock… Efforts which notably enabled France to catch up in terms of support for Ukraine. But these companies cannot take on everything.
It is therefore now a matter of the State taking over, living up to its declarations, to maintain this effort over time, and to promote the return on investment of companies, essential to the continuation of their effort. However, the signals are not encouraging. The armies recorded a record of 8 billion deferrals of charges in 2024, unpaid debts which weigh on suppliers and the availability of their cash flow. On the budget side, while the executive claims to take the lead in “major” initiatives, such as the coalition of volunteers for Ukraine, the financial effort does not reflect the intentions. From 2022 to 2024, France went from 1.92% to 1.99% of GDP spent on Defense, while Poland rose from 2.23% to 4.12%, and Great Britain remained at around 2.3%.
If our partners continue their efforts at this pace, French industry will automatically lose its influence in Europe.
The figures do not lie: France is lagging behind even though it is making a very ambitious speech. The national representation does not hide its concern. The deputies Matthieu Bloch and Jean-Louis Thiériot, members of the Commission on National Defense and the Armed Forces, presented a report in April 2025 devoting a large part to deep strike, and concluding on the need to strongly strengthen these means. On the financial level, they already expressed their concerns: “How can we ensure that current projects will meet planned deadlines and budgets in order to avoid any delays detrimental to our operational capacity? » A concern which has certainly not diminished, while six months later, France is sinking into political instability, precisely for budgetary reasons.
France must not let itself be let down
There is therefore an urgency, for fear of seeing the French BITD being downgraded, especially in comparison with the major maneuvers across the Rhine where a giant like Rheinmetall enjoys very strong growth and multiplies acquisitions. Its share price tends to prove that its strategy is paying off (488 euros in September 2024, 1,912 euros one year later).
If our partners continue their efforts at this pace, French industry will automatically lose its influence in Europe. Domestically, this could also have direct consequences on employment and technological know-how. In Paris, public authorities are today facing their responsibilities: we must move from words to action and give BITD all the means to be competitive.
