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 unemployment rate in the European Union, RAND wrote in a report last year.
“In terms of human resources, we are in the opposite situation,” Justel said. “This year, we’re already slowing down recruitment because not only are we recruiting better, but we’re retaining people better.”
France has one of the largest youth cohorts in Europe, with those aged 15 to 19 making up 6.2% of the population in 2024, compared with 4.7% for Germany and 5% for Poland. Meanwhile, trust in the armed forces is among the highest in France, with 84% of the French expressing trust compared with 73% of Germans and 76% of Poles, according to a Eurobarometer poll published in May.
“To see the number of young people coming to enlist, and not enlisting just to find a job, they’re joining to serve in combat units and looking to defend their country,” Justel said. “There’s a dynamic in this country, there’s a demographic that makes it possible, and there’s a mindset that makes it possible.”
“When I talk with my foreign counterparts, what strikes me most is the difference in recruitment, in terms of quantity, quality, motivation, and mindset,” Justel said. “Where we’re in the opposite situation is in terms of equipment, we’re not sufficiently equipped to handle a high-intensity conflict.”
The French Army continues to lack spare parts and stockpiles, and has “very significant gaps” in deep fires, ground-to-air defense, counter-drone operations, and electronic warfare, according to Justel. He said France’s two most recent defense-planning laws improved the equipment situation a lot, and the Army’s armored-vehicle modernization is “progressing well,” but more is needed.
Justel said France retains expertise in areas such as electronic warfare but needs to spread those capabilities more broadly across the force. The Army has identified the equivalent of about ten battalions needed to be more effective in areas including command, logistics, deep fires, drones and electronic warfare, he said.
“But there, we’re moving into a change in format, into additional capabilities,” Justel said. “So these are more long-term efforts.”
The deputy commander said France’s force structure means it would be difficult for the country to permanently replace U.S. troops in parts of Europe, with the Army already “very committed” with deployments in Romania and Estonia.
The French Army is instead counting on regular exercises in countries such as Finland rather than permanent basing, to ensure troops are familiar with the terrain, conditions and local friendly forces, and to be able to deploy reinforcements “quickly and effectively” the day they are needed, Justel said.
Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.