Aging boatsThe Navy will be very concerned

European frigates multi-mission (FREMM) and "Horizon" frigates, submarines to attack "Barracuda", second aircraft carriers, naval cruise missiles, M51 ballistic missile... On paper, the Navy appears to be filled by a renewal effort that it had not experienced for a long time. However, this influx of programs worth to DCN, Thales, Safran, MBDA and the whole of the French military naval industry of beautiful industrial prospects for the next ten years, remains precarious. Because this phenomenon lies in what remains the sinews of war: money.

So far, Michèle Alliot-Marie repeated it at will, the military planning law 2003-2008 has been met. The Minister of defence was able to contain the onslaught of Bercy with the shield provided by Jacques Chirac himself, who, after the cuts made under the Government Jospin by Alain Richard, had promised the "sanctuary" of the defence budget. Result, it has seen the annual amount of the payment appropriations increase by 5 billion between the end of 2002 and the end of 2006 to 47 billion, including pensions.

Cover programs

On this amount, $ 3 billion annual increase attributable to credits for equipment and maintenance of equipment (which total $ 15.6 billion). One-third of this increase is attributable to the Navy. We even went beyond in the case of the FREMM programme which aims to replace 19 ships of four different types with as many units of the same family (formula to be source of economy of a series effect) and supported outside military programming law. At the launch, in 2004, the Finance Bill did not a penny for authorization of commitment to these frigates which were to benefit from "innovative funding", close to the leasing, with a bank pool.

Difficult to build legally a building of combat, engaged in a crisis, property of a bank , costly because of the weight of the interests in the timeline, the project was abandoned in favour of a classic budget funding that had to be clear here where nothing was planned. But the program FREMM is only at the beginning while as Charles Cova, Vice-Chairman of the Committee of the defence in the National Assembly, the budget of the equipment of the armed forces will be "a bump from 2010". The then Government probably well will have a hard to resist the temptation to resort to the remedies more easily used in the past: the spread of programmes (expensive because it generates penalties paid to industrialists) or reduction of the number of units ordered.

Aging boats

"The Navy will be very concerned." "This will be a challenge that will involve, on the part of the Government, a political will of iron", believes the elected, whereas with 1,000 billion of debt, the France lives at a level of debt that can that frighten the current candidate to the Presidency of the Republic. These uncertainties are not immune to the industry. The FREMM program, initially set at 17 ships, should be increased to 19, since the Navy gave up the two last frigates anti-aircraft "Horizon" (more expensive and much more intensive staff) towards an adapted version of frigates. In reality, no one is is to predict the number that will actually ordered in total. The first firm slice signed November 16, 2005 is limited to eight units.

For the launch of the program "Barracuda" (six nuclear attack submarines), the first firm tranche should be on a building, over the cost of development. For the second aircraft carrier, the efforts of Michèle Alliot-Marie to make the command "irreversible did not prevent Ségolène Royal, the candidate of the Socialist Party in the presidential election, suggest without them and imagine sharing, technically impossible, a British aircraft carriers.

The budgetary horizon is therefore responsible for the Navy, which is despite that if commands scramble today, it is failing to comply with the initial schedule and replaced by new units its aging boats which are now almost 20 years of age. If the command of the "Barracuda" is confirmed before the end of the year, first generation submarine did enter service in 2017 at best, while it was expected in 2008. The current SNA will be thirty-five years when the time of succession will be sounded, when they were scheduled to last only twenty-five years.