France is proud of the success of its defense technological and industrial base (BITD) with 4,000 companies – including 450 considered strategic and 600 exporters – supporting its armed forces alongside industry giants such as Airbus, Dassault Aviation, Nexter, Naval Group, MBDA, Thales and Safran.

Born in the 1960s out of General Charles de Gaulle's ambition for independence, it produces almost all of its military equipment, enabling its land, naval and air forces to avoid reliance on "off the shelf" purchases from the Americans and other European suppliers.

This ambition has a weakness inherent to France's status as a middle power: its army has a limited market, so the BITD has to export to survive. The Rafale fighter jet, with its Safran engines, Thales electronics and MBDA missiles is significant in this aspect. In 2022, Dassault's sale of 80 jets to the United Arab Emirates accounted for two-thirds of France's €27 billion in export sales in this sector, ranking it third globally, after the United States and Russia.

"France is a single-product country. Without the Rafale, it would be marginalized," noted Marc Chassillan, an arms engineer and defense consultant. France is losing ground in Europe and is also increasingly dependent on Middle Eastern countries. It is struggling to sell frigates and submarines in a highly competitive market. Its manufacturers have abandoned infantry equipment and no longer produce Leclerc tanks, which is an export failure. Jaguar and Griffon armored vehicles, designed for asymmetric conflicts (Afghanistan, Sahel, etc.), have only found takers in Belgium because of the close military cooperation between Paris and Brussels. Although the Caesar cannon is in great demand, Nexter cannot meet all the requests.

When it comes to land armaments, "global supply has become abundant," said Chassillan. Second-tier exporters are emerging (United Arab Emirates, Brazil, South Africa, Egypt, etc.) and the historical heavyweights of the defense market are worried about more formidable competitors such as South Korea, Turkey and Israel. "[These players] are benefiting from a move upmarket in their products and uninhibited export control," stressed the government's 2023 report to Parliament on arms exports, while "intra-European competition is not weakening."

In 2022, when Poland ordered 1,000 K2 tanks, 500 K9 howitzers, hundreds of missiles and 50 FA-50 aircraft from South Korea, the Old Continent's industry was caught off guard and unable to react. Neither Krauss-Maffei Wegmann of Germany nor General Dynamics of the United States could deliver so many Leopard 2 or Abrams tanks, respectively. Nexter couldn't deliver Caesars and Airbus couldn't deliver dozens of Eurofighter aircraft. In a Europe that for 30 years had ruled out the scenario of a high-intensity conflict, the industrial apparatus has atrophied.

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