France's President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday called for a"sustainable" effort to scale up weapons production following the Russian invasion of"Long term we are looking at a geopolitical, geostrategic shift in which defence industries will play a growing role," he said.
He spoke as visited the site of a future gunpowder factory being built in the southwestern town of Bergerac to respond to a shortage of propellant charges needed to supply artillery shells to Ukraine."We must be quick, go hard, mass produce," he said, adding the effort must also be"sustainable". Eurenco, a leading Europen supplier of gunpowder and explosives, is to open the Bergerac factory in 2025 and produce 1,200 tonnes of propellant per year.Eurenco CEO Thierry Francou said these had started to increase before the start of the Ukraine war but that the invasion had definitely been"a growth accelerator".Macron in June that year called for a boost to defence budgets in Europe, saying France was on a"war economy" footing.