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FACTS & STATISTICS
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Air force personnel
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78,100 |
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[4th of 49]
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Armed forces growth
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-37 |
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[109th of 132]
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Armed forces personnel
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294,000 |
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[17th of 166]
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Army personnel
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203,200 |
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[12th of 49]
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Conscription
Conscription exists. |
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Conventional arms exports
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$2,122,000,000.00 |
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[3rd of 40]
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Conventional arms imports
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$89,000,000.00 |
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[37th of 85]
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Expenditures > Dollar figure
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$46,500,000,000.00 |
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[3rd of 170]
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Exports to developing nations
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$22,632.00 million |
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[3rd of 7]
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Forces in Europe > Aircraft
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577 |
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[4th of 24]
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Forces in Europe > Battle Tanks
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1,069 |
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[11th of 24]
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Gulf War Coalition Forces
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14,600 |
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[5th of 30]
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Manpower > Availability > Males age 15-49
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14,523,200 |
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[21st of 175]
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Manpower > Military age
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18 |
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[82nd of 129]
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Navy personnel
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63,300 |
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[5th of 49]
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Weapon holdings
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6,000,000 |
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[13th of 137]
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WMD > Biological
France possessed a biological weapons program from 1921 to 1926 and again from 1935 to 1940. During these periods, France weaponized the potato beetle and conducted research on pathogens that cause anthrax, salmonella, cholera, and rinderpest. Its scientists also investigated botulinum toxin and ricin. It acceded to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) on September 27, 1984. |
WMD > Missile
France has an estimated 60 operational Air-Sol-Moyenne Porte (ASMP) supersonic missiles with a 300-kilometer range. The ASMP Ameliore (ASMP-A), with a range of 500 kilometers, is expected to enter service in 2007. The ASMPs are carried on 3 squads (60 total) of Mirage 2000N bombers and carrier-based aircraft. France's four operational nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) carry a total of 48 M4 and M45 submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM) with 288 total warheads. A new SLBM, the M51, will enter service in 2010 and eventually will be carried on all four operating SSBNs. The M51 will have a range of 8,000 to 10,000 kilometers and be capable of carrying up to six warheads. In December 2004. the French Arms Procurement Agency (DGA) placed a 3.0 billion euro order with EADS Aeronautics Company for new M51 ballistic missiles. The French government was also in its final stages of development of the ASMP-A ramjet-powered air-launched cruise missile as of January 2005. France deactivated and dismantled its 18 S3D intermediate-range missiles on the Plateau d'Albion in the 1990s. France is a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime. |
WMD > Nuclear
France is a nuclear weapon state party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). France maintains approximately 350 nuclear warheads on 60 Mirage 2000N bombers, four nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBN), and on carrier-based aircraft. From the time it detonated its first nuclear bomb in 1960 until its final test on January 26, 1996, France conducted 200 tests at sites on Pacific atolls and in the Sahara. In 1996, President Jacques Chirac introduced reforms for the country's nuclear forces, including scaling down its SSBNs from five to four, withdrawing aging Mirage IVP bombers from service, reducing its number of launchers by 50%, and dismantling its Plateau d'Albion land-based ballistic missile system. It dismantled its nuclear test facilities in the Pacific and ratified the Treaty of Rarotonga and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. France ceased production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium in 1992 and 1996, respectively, and, in 1998, began to dismantle the Marcoule reprocessing plant and the Pierrelatte enrichment facility. The French Navy operates about 80% of the total nuclear arsenal. |
WMD > Overview
France is party to all major nonproliferation treaties and is a member of all major international export control regimes. Although it has scaled down its nuclear forces since the end of the Cold War, France still retains a significant nuclear capability. Though France developed biological and chemical weapons during the two world wars, it has ceased activities in both areas. It possesses a limited but varied missile program. |
... View all Military stats
SOURCES: Energy Information Administration, US Department of Energy; calculated on the basis of data on armed forces from IISS (International Institute for Strategic Studies). 2001. The Military Balance 2001-2002. Oxford: Oxford University Press; IISS (International Institute for Strategic Studies). 2001. The Military Balance 2001-2002. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland, 1997. Data collected from the nations concerned, unless otherwise indicated. Acronyms: Amnesty International (AI); European Council of Conscripts Organizations (ECCO); Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC); International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHFHR); National Interreligious Service Board for Conscientious Objectors (NISBCO); Service, Peace and Justice in Latin America (SERPAJ); War Resisters International (WRI); World Council of Churches (WCC); SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute). 2005. SIPRI Arms Transfers. Database. February. Stockholm.; CIA World Factbook, 28 July 2005; Richard F. Grimmett, "Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1992-1999" (Washington: Congressional Research Service, August 18, 2000), p. 51; Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE): A Review and Update of Key Treaty Elements (US Department of State: Washington, DC, Jan. 2002). Joint Consultative Group (JCG), Group on Treaty Operation and Implementation, JCG document JCG.TOI/22/03, 23 June 2003; "Gulf War Veterans: Measuring Health" by Lyla M. Hernandez, Jane S. Durch, Dan G. Blazer II, and Isabel V. Hoverman, Editors; Committee on Measuring the Health of Gulf War Veterans, Institute of Medicine. Published by The National Academies Press 1999; CIA World Factbook, December 2003; Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC); The Nuclear Threat Initiative
ALTERNATIVE NAMES:
France, French Republic, Republique Francaise
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