Ukraine received French unitary rocket launchers

LRUs have arrived in Ukraine. Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov posted a photo on Twitter of a unitary rocket launcher on Tuesday (LRU) warmly thanking France. Paris has promised the delivery of two systems. The Ukrainian army is “now more powerful”, rejoiced the minister without obviously revealing anything about the positions taken by the LRU. Due to its "deep" strike capability at a range of 70 km, the unitary rocket launcher belongs to the crucial armaments for the Ukrainian forces at the same rank as the American Himars. Gunners can thus hit Russian supply chains or their rear bases, or strike the front while out of range of counter-battery fire.
French aid is not limited to the LRU. France also delivered Caesar guns and howitzers from 155 mm. Promised Crotale air defense systems are also on their way to the battlefield : two batteries have been announced. With artillery and ammunition, missile defense is another emergency for Ukraine, subjected to massive bombardments against its civil infrastructures. Paris is also studying the sending of radar detection systems.
If Paris is criticized for the relative weakness of its material support for Ukraine, the French government insists on the consistency of promises and deliveries. Other supporters have announced a lot of armaments but have not yet provided them, do we notice. “What we promise, we really give it”, declared Sébastien Lecornu in October. Before the Senate, he also showed realism : “We are not making transfers that would put the French nation in danger”, had he warned before adding in a surge of sincerity : “We do it with the pragmatism that leads us to look at the reality of our stocks, but also the reality of the advice given to us by our generals”. France had only 13 LRU. There is no question of yielding others for the moment.
The weakness of French artillery capacities limits the possibility of possible future deliveries. France is paying the price for its past budgetary choices. So far, "the army had preferred a logic of effect to be achieved rather than a capability approach", explains a military source. To understand : air superiority, assumed acquired, was intended to achieve objectives beyond the front line. But the war in Ukraine has demonstrated the fragility of the approach : the war takes place there on the ground, aviation only playing a marginal role. “The war in Ukraine shows how deep fires are growing”, underlined the chief of staff Thierry Burkhard in a hearing before the Senate. Replacement of LRUs within the Army was on the horizon 2030.

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