The Operational Buffer, an alternative to strengthen the Armies and the Defense Industry

Faced with the rapid upheavals affecting geostrategic balances in the world, the French armies, like the national defense industry, are facing a complementary problem, but without an obvious solution.

Indeed, the armies continue to repeat, in an increasingly audible manner, that they lack the means, and in particular the heavy means and personnel, to carry out their missions in a context where high-intensity engagements could become possible again, or even become the norm.

At the same time, the French Defense Industrial and Technological Base, or BITD, although it currently has relatively sustained activity, clearly lacks medium-term visibility, but also production volume, to be able to impose its equipment during competitions on the international scene.

The complementarity of needs is therefore obvious, but cannot be achieved today due to the budgetary limitations imposed by the State on the country's public finances, which have been largely handicapped by the COVID crisis.

At the same time, it is becoming increasingly clear that second-hand military equipment, particularly recent second-hand equipment with real military potential in the medium and long term, is enjoying increasing success with many countries wishing to rapidly increase their military capabilities in the face of threats which are also evolving rapidly.

These requests also concern the field of combat aircraft, as was the case for Greece's acquisition of 18 Rafale including 12 second-hand ones with a first delivery yesterday in Istres, as well as the ships, as in the case of the sale of the 2 French FREMM frigates to Morocco and Egypt, followed by two FREMM frigates taken from the inventory of the Italian Navy for Cairo.

Under these conditions, it appears relevant to consider a model complementary to the traditional sale of defense equipment, allowing simultaneously to meet this export need, to increase the immediate operational capacities of the Armed Forces, and to increase the activity of the defense industries, without affecting public finances, the Operational Buffer.

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