France and Australia have reached an agreement to supply 155mm shells to Ukraine to support it in its war against Russia, French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Australian Richard Marles announced Monday.
“Several thousand 155mm shells are going to be jointly produced,” declared Sébastien Lecornu, while Richard Marles spoke of a “multi-million Australian dollar project”, a “new cooperation between the Australian and French defense industries”.
“This is part of the support efforts that Australia and France are providing to Ukraine to ensure that it is able to hang on to this conflict and end it on its own terms,” the Australian minister’s official said. “The idea is to provide significant assistance and a continuous effort over time,” said Sébastien Lecornu, who is aiming for the first deliveries during the first quarter of 2023 but declines to go into further contract details.
Relaunch of Franco-Australian cooperation
The French group Nexter will be maneuvering on the French side, while Australia will be able to “bring gunpowder”, explained the French minister. The defense ministers met their foreign affairs counterparts Catherine Colonna of France and Penny Wong of Australia in a 2+2 format meeting in Paris as part of a recent relaunch of Franco-Australian cooperation. This was seriously affected by the Aukus affair in 2021, when Canberra canceled a major French submarine contract to opt to buy American submersibles.
The 155mm shells are what fire several Western artillery pieces supplied to Ukraine in its war against Russia, such as the French Caesars, the American M777s or the German Panzerhaubitze 2000s.
Source: BFM TV
