French Army has recruitment surplus but lacks equipment, deputy chief says

PARIS — The French Army has so many applicants that it has had to slow recruitment, while at the same time lacking hardware in areas ranging from spare parts to deep-fires weaponry and counter-drone defense, said deputy chief of staff Gen. Patrick Justel.France faces a different challenge from Germany and Poland, which have ample funding for equipment but struggle to attract enough personnel to meet force targets, according to Justel. The French Army has “more than enough” recruitment candidates, and last year declined to recruit the equivalent of a regiment due to budgetary constraints, the deputy chief said in a briefing here on Thursday.European NATO members have lifted defense budgets following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and as the United States pushes for allies to take on more conventional defense. While many countries including France are expanding reserve forces, Germany and Poland also plan to grow active-duty personnel by tens of thousands in coming years, with measures such as higher pay to make military service more attractive.“We have completely asymmetrical situations,” Justel said. “I see in Poland and Germany a huge budgetary and industrial effort to acquire weapons. Now, they face enormous personnel difficulties, and having a lot of weaponry without the fighters behind it, well, that remains problematic.”Germany aims to expand its armed forces to 260,000 active soldiers by 2035 from about 186,000 now, according to a federal law governing Bundeswehr force development, while Poland intends to increase its armed forces to 300,000 from around 210,000 in mid-2025. Meanwhile, France has a force of around 191,000 military personnel and plans to recruit 21,400 active-duty troops in 2026.Poland has high ambitions to grow its forces, “they have a real sense of urgency, but there are still difficulties recruiting,” Justel said.The Polish armed forces face intensifying competition for labor in a growing economy, with Poland having the second-lowest unemp