Defense spending

France proposes big defense budget hike

France unveiled Thursday a draft of its 2019-2025 military budget plan, setting €295 billion (U.S. $361 billion) on spending, which included better barracks, larger orders of Army armored vehicles, and studies on next-generation nuclear submarines and airborne nuclear missiles.

That spending plan compares to €190 billion in the present 2014-2018 budget law. The Armed Forces Ministry sees the budget law as a “renewal,” as the government seeks to “regenerate” the services. A first phase consists of €198 billion in the present five-year government term, with defense spending rising €1.7 billion each year to hit €44 billion in 2023. That compares to the 2018 budget of €34.2 billion.

That expenditure is covered by the government spending cap, which seeks to rein in the French deficit to 3 percent of gross domestic product, as requested by the European Commission. France has pledged to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense by 2025, a target set by NATO for member states.