The Minister of Defense of France, Sébastien Lecornu, announced the transfer of six additional Caesar self-propelled guns to Ukraine, which should arrive in the coming weeks.
Defense Express reminds that France has already transferred 18 units of Caesar self-propelled howitzers, as well as an undisclosed number of the TRF1 howitzers. Sébastien Lecornu emphasized during the LCI broadcast that the transfer of an additional 6 units fulfills the promise of Paris from the transfer of 24 Caesar self-propelled guns.
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But the fact is that the transfer of these self-propelled guns, as previously reported, is most likely not from storage the French Army, but from those aimed for Denmark. The 2017 contract provided for the production of 15 Caesar self-propelled guns, which was later expanded to 19 units.
The French mass media came to this conclusion, because as of 2021 France had only 76 Caesar units in service and the transfer of 18 self-propelled guns had already significantly affected the defense capability. Especially considering that the Caesar is the main 155mm artillery system in service with the 200,000-strong Armed Forces of France, along with 32 units of the old AU-F-1.
The only way to test this hypothesis is to see the exact transferred units, as France and Danmark have a different chassis of this system, namely Danmark use the Tatra T815-7 chassis with the wheel formula 8x8, which has a higher load capacity instead of French 6x6.
Due to this, the level of armor was increased, along with higher ammunition load. In addition, these Caesars are equipped with a new automated charging system.
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