A few months ago, this rate of manufacturing of Caesar artillery guns was thought to be nearly impossible.
However, under pressure from the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, the situation changed quite radically. Nexter, the company that manufactures the famous Caesar self-propelled guns, now cranks out six completely new units in just a single month.
Is it difficult to make 6 vehicles of this type in approximately 30 days?
During peaceful times, the production rate at the same company was just two Caesar units a month.
Manufacturing military equipment is not the same thing as producing consumer cars. A lot of specialized equipment is needed, plus there is usually only a very limited number of parts in the warehouses, meaning that the entire logistics chain must be reworked from the bottom up to the top.
Until today, France has provided 18 Caesar howitzers for Ukraine. Additional 19 units originally planned to be delivered to Denmark will be “re-routed” to Ukraine, too, with the support of the Danish government.
These numbers mean that under the current production capacity at Nexter, a full batch of Caesars (18+19) can be manufactured in just half a year, or probably even faster.
Last Tuesday, the Minister of the Armed Forces of France, Sébastien Lecornu, announced that Paris would supply twelve additional Caesar guns to Ukraine, as well as an undisclosed number of air defense equipment.
The French Minister also noted that the country’s arms manufacturers are beginning to enter what they call “war economy”, when they are able to produce more and faster.