The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence is in meltdown right now, with the secretary of defence, one of his top ministers and two key aides all resigning this week over the government’s failure to publish a workable defence investment plan. Things are looking very different on the other side of the channel, however.
France’s Senate has officially approved a major update to the country’s defence budget for 2026–2030. Last week (9 June), lawmakers authorised an additional €36 billion in military spending over the next five years.
The increase in defence spending, however, comes as France continues to emerge from a prolonged budgetary crisis. The financial burden of rearmament remains a contentious issue. Some in the Senate proposed, but ultimately rejected, a larger €50 billion boost.
The current bill still needs final joint parliamentary committee approval before passing into law but is being expedited with endorsements.
The package speaks to the push for rearmament and modernisation that is playing out across Europe right now amid rising geopolitical tensions and a push for more national resilience to improve preparedness. The French plan is wide-ranging and prioritises several areas: it wants to increase munition stockpiles; boost sovereign nuclear deterrence; and double down on space capabilities; but also it has a large provision for next-generation systems, with planned investment into drones, robotics, surface-to-air missiles and electromagnetic technologies, and the systems that would underpin those.
The bill also introduces new rules regarding civilian resilience and the transition to a “war economy.” It requires critical industries to maintain strategic stockpiles and gives priority to military orders in key sectors.
In one of the firsts for the European Union, France will also allow private operators of critical infrastructure to procure their own counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS).
“France must prepare itself to confront simultaneous, prolonged and high-intensity crises, including on its own soil,” Defence Minister Catherine Vautrin told a parliamentary commission in April, describing the guiding principle behind the reform.
The revised budget will double French annual defence spending between 2017 and 2027, to €64 bilion, reaching 2.7% of GDP by 2030. An additional €8.5 billion will be spent on munitions over the next five years, along with €2 billion on drones and €1.6 billion on surface-to-air and counter-drone systems.
A further €3.9 billion will be allocated to the space domain, taking advantage of the “opportunities in the new space industry,” according to Vautrin.
Important Milestone
An April report by the French Institute of International Affairs (IFRI) described the reform as an “important milestone” in adapting the French military to a deteriorating security environment.
The think tank argued that securing parliamentary approval represented a significant achievement given France’s recent budgetary and political turbulence, as well the likely change of the executive after the 2027 presidential elections.
IFRI highlighted the reform’s ambition to improve the overall coherence of the French army by closing capability gaps, with support for frontier-technology programmes such as Pendragon (ground robotics), Cloud Secret (an AI command-and-control architecture), and a space-based early-warning system.
At the same time, it puts projects deemed obsolete on the back burner. These include the medium-altitude, long-endurance Eurodrone programme.
However, IFRI also pointed to a gap between the reform and France’s National Strategic Review, unveiled by President Emmanuel Macron in 2025 and intended to provide its foundation.
The review warned of the possibility of a large-scale, high-intensity war in Europe by 2030. Significantly, the new budget framework effectively acknowledges that even with the investments that it is making, it is unlikely that the French armed forces would be fully prepared for such a conflict until 2035.
Privatising C-UAS systems
According to Archibald Bagourd, whose advisory firm Helio works with the defence sector, the additional €36 billion and accompanying regulatory changes represent a significant effort but remain insufficient in certain domains, such as anti-drone systems.
“There’s a lack of resources dedicated to surface-to-air defenses, for acquiring equipment to destroy drones, which today possess jammers and missiles,” Bagourd said. IFRI echoed his conclusions, regretting “the lack of a structured defensive network across the territory.”
And, in an unprecedented move, the bill has a provision for private operators of critical infrastructure to procure their own counter-drone capabilities. This will apply to around 150 companies managing approximately 1,500 facilities across France. The final list of eligible operators will be determined by the Prime Minister. (Some providers appear to already be gearing up for this: Orange France announced a C-UAS product earlier this year.)
The legislation authorises designated companies to “render inoperative or neutralise an unmanned aircraft” operating in the immediate vicinity of strategic sites. The government has yet to specify whether the permission will apply only to jammers, or to small interceptor systems as well.
According to Florian Audigier, co-founder of autonomous systems start-up EGIDE, the amendment could create a major new market for French companies developing “soft-kill” C-UAS solutions, with critical infrastructure operators becoming a new customer base.
Political project
Industry sources say the Élysée prioritised enshrining the bill into law before the Bastille Day military parade on July 14, providing a symbolic achievement before Emmanuel Macron leaves office, and exactly a year after he first announced the need for a revised military budget, during a speech to the armies in July 2025.
According to Audigier, this political timetable explains why the legislation was examined under an accelerated parliamentary procedure, leaving industry stakeholders with limited time to communicate their suggestions to lawmakers.
Despite France’s budget deficit, the military spending increase enjoys broad public support. According to a 2025 IPSOS poll, 68% of French citizens are in favour of higher defence expenditure.
