French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday called for a “sustainable” effort to boost weapons production following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as he laid the foundation stone for a much-needed gunpowder factory in France, AFP reports.
“In the long term, we are looking at geopolitical, geostrategic changes in which the defense industry will play an increasingly important role,” he said.
Macron visited the site of a future gunpowder factory being built in the southwestern town of Bergerac to address a shortage of propellant charges needed to deliver artillery shells to Ukraine.
“The effort being made here is of urgent importance. We have to be fast, go strong and mass produce,” added Macron.
Eurenco, a leading European supplier of gunpowder and explosives, will open the Bergerac plant in 2025 and produce 1,200 tons of propellant per year.
The Defense Industry Group has announced that it has secured orders until 2030.
Gunpowder has been produced at this location since 1915, during the First World War, but the factory was shut down in 2007 due to a lack of orders.
Eurenc CEO Thierry Francou said they had started to increase production before the start of the war in Ukraine, but that the invasion had definitely “increased growth”.
European countries have pumped billions into defense and military aid funds since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
In June of the same year, Macron called for an increase in the defense budget in Europe, saying that France was on the threshold of a “war economy”.
The French government ordered military equipment worth 20 billion euros ($21 billion) last year, a third more than in previous years.
