Seven countries are preparing to join forces to develop the long-range land strike of tomorrow. An initiative proposed by France which should notably lead to resolving a capacity gap within the European pillar of NATO.
The Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu announced it last month on the sidelines of a Franco-German summit: the renewal of the unitary rocket launcher in service in the Army will also involve joint developments with Germany and other partners. A scenario whose extent was somewhat clarified yesterday during a meeting of French, German and Polish defense ministers in Weimar format, the first since 2015.
« Ministers prepared for the signing of a letter of intent at ministerial level with Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Poland and Sweden », announced the German Ministry of Defense on the sidelines of the trilateral meeting. This document will be ratified at the beginning of July at the NATO summit in Washington. It will lay the foundations for an effort called “ European Long Strike Approach » (ELSA) and visibly called to be subdivided into “capacity poles”.
Launched by Paris and supported by Berlin, ELSA provides for the joint development and acquisition of long-range precision weapons. Weapon systems reaching ” a range greater than 1000 km », which the European allies are deprived of and for which NATO is demanding large-scale catch-up.
« We will be required to sign a letter of intent together to think about what these deep ground-to-ground strikes could be. », declared Sébastien Lecornu. “ We want this to be a deliverable from the Washington summit », insisted his German counterpart, Boris Pistorius. Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said: open to all initiatives presented within the Weimar triangle. Anything that could strengthen our ties must be supported ».
These announcements come at a time when several French manufacturers are beginning to position themselves to respond as a priority to national needs. Several tracks were unveiled last week at the Eurosatory show. by the duo formed by MBDA and Safran, including a land-based variant of the naval cruise missile (MdCN). An example taken up by the Minister of the Armed Forces. This good ability, “ France already has the technological building blocks to do this, notably with the MdCN », he noted this Monday.
