France’s military is set for a landmark exercise in Eastern Europe next year, as the French President continues to ready his forces for a showdown with Russia.
Emmanuel Macron has been increasingly hawkish in recent years, calling on European allies, notably Germany, to ramp up defence spending and support for President Zelensky.
Now his troops are to conduct a major military exercise in Romania, a country that neighbours Ukraine – as Russia continues to wage war.
“We used to play war. Now there’s a designated enemy, and we train with people with whom we’d actually go to war,” the head of the army’s land command for Europe, General Bertrand Toujouse, told journalists prior to the weekend.
The exercise, called Dacian Spring 2025, sends “a strategic signal” to NATO’s enemies, the General said.
Earlier this year the French Ministry of the Armed Forces said the military was undergoing a “profound transformation” to ready itself for imminent battle.
In June, the Ministry added that by 2027 the army aims to be able to deploy a “high intensity” division of 19,000 men and 7,000 vehicles in just 30 days. As it stands, such a deployment would take six month to organise.
Senior NATO officials will be hopeful that next year’s exercise isn’t hampered by logistical challenges that dogged a similar exercise in 2022.
Two years ago, General Toujouse told Politico that “unbelievable” levels of red tape meant that he couldn’t transport military hardware across Europe easily.
“It’s absolutely essential to put military mobility back into European minds, and for this we need to practice”, he told the outlet.
“We discovered the extent of the administrative red tape. There’s a war in Ukraine, but customs officials explain that you don’t have the right tonnage per axle and that your tanks aren’t allowed to cross Germany,” Toujouse said from his office in Lille. “It’s just unbelievable.”