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France licenses missile production in Ukraine
France licenses missile production in Ukraine
Kiev will be allowed to manufacture cruise missiles, glide bombs, and interceptors on its soil, French President Emmanuel Macron has said Published 14 Jul, 2026 20:12 | Updated 14 Jul, 2026 21:15FILE PHOTO: A SCALP-EG/Storm Shadow cruise missile displayed at the Paris Air Show, France, June 2025. © Getty Images / Nicolas Economou/NurPhotoFrance will grant Ukraine licenses to produce missiles and bombs on its soil, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday.
Speaking at a ‘Coalition of the Willing’ summit in Paris, Macron said the agreements would allow Ukraine to manufacture Aster 30 interceptor missiles, AASM glide bombs and SCALP-EG cruise missiles under license.
“We have agreed on licensing agreements for new capabilities,” he told reporters, adding that the move “will allow us to produce these capabilities much more quickly with our Ukrainian partners and on Ukrainian soil.”
The AASM and SCALP-EG have already been supplied to Kiev and have been widely used by Ukrainian forces, including in strikes on Russian civilian targets, according to Moscow.
Macron also said additional Franco-Italian SAMP/T air defense batteries and Aster interceptors would be delivered to Ukraine in the coming weeks. He added that 16 Rafale fighter jets are expected to arrive in 2028-2029.
READ MORE: Bulgaria pulls out of coalition of Ukraine backersThe ‘Coalition of the Willing’ is a France- and UK-led group of countries pushing for security guarantees for Kiev, including for deployment of troops in Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire – something which Russia has repeatedly warned it will not tolerate.
Nine participating countries also launched an Anti-Ballistic Missile Coalition aimed at building a European integrated air defense network using shared industrial capacity, amid shortages of US-made Patriot interceptors due to the Ukraine and Iran conflicts.
The Kremlin has repeatedly condemned the coalition as “a group of countries that doesn’t want peace [and] wants the war to continue.”
READ MORE: Russian attacks capable of penetrating all Ukrainian defenses – MOD“This is a coalition of the deluded and a coalition of warmongers,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last month that NATO members were turning Ukraine into a “testing ground” for Western military technologies.
Several EU states reportedly began moving parts of their military production to Ukraine after the Russian Defense Ministry published what it said were the locations of European companies manufacturing drone components for Kiev. Moscow warned in March that European leaders were “dragging their countries into a war with Russia.”
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