France wants to rejoin NATO military wing after 40 years

PanARMENIAN.Net - France wants to return to NATO's integrated military command structure for the first time in 40 years.



The new military and security strategy, which President Nicolas Sarkozy will present in public after months of internal debate, calls for a smaller, more mobile army, with savings spent on better intelligence and modern equipment.



Building a credible European defense is a French priority, the strategy says. But French plans were damaged by the Irish rejection of a new set of rules for the 27-nation European Union that would have made it easier for members to cooperate on defense.



In fact, publication of the French white paper was delayed until after the Irish referendum last week on the so-called Lisbon Treaty, to avoid providing the neutral Irish with another reason to vote no.



The new defense doctrine, the White Book, seeks to prepare France and Europe for a post-Soviet world in which conventional military threats are downgraded compared to a multitude of complex, globalized risks, ranging from epidemics to terrorism and cyberwar.



Jobs in defense will be cut, with estimates of 54,000 over the next six to seven years out of a current total of some 330,000. Most of the reductions will come from the standing army and its noncombatant support services, with the intention of reversing the current 60-40 ratio of support to combat personnel.



The cuts are politically sensitive, given local and political interests, but a reduction in personnel is the only way to provide more financial room for maneuver for acquisitions and training intended to create a more modern army, where threats are more likely to come from terrorism, cyberwarfare or missile attack than from a traditional invasion.



The plan foresees raising the budget for military acquisition, for example, by more than 16 percent, without immediately raising defense spending, and spending twice as much on space, with the intention of creating a space-based early warning system against missile attack. A decision to build another aircraft carrier will be postponed and spending on intelligence, which is to be reorganized under a single chief, is expected to double.



France's defense budget is about $57.3 billion a year. The plan foresees an increase of one percent over the rate of inflation beginning in 2012. France currently spends about 2.3 percent of its gross domestic product on defense; that will drop to 2 percent over the next 12 years.



The plan also sets a new requirement of at least 30,000 French soldiers able to be deployed in combat within six months, with 5,000 soldiers on permanent operational alert, part of the larger goal of helping to make a European defense capability both credible and functional. Europe's goal, far from being realized, is to have 60,000 soldiers able to be deployed, the IHT reports.



"France is an independent ally and free partner. I uphold the principles proclaimed by General de Gaulle. France will reserve the right to decide on its participation in military operations. Our military contingent will never be under NATO command in time of peace," the French President stated.