French military conducts war preparedness exercises

France launches the massive military exercise Orion 23 in southern France.

The French army is being prepared for high-intensity warfare. 20,000 soldiers will simulate different scenarios of the modern warfare from February 23 to March 11, Sébastien Lecornu, the defense minister, reports on Twitter.

"The most ambitious military exercises in decades began this week," he said.

Dubbed "Orion," the joint exercise has been in preparation since 2020 but was expanded by the French general staff following russia's invasion of Ukraine in order to approximate potential ground conditions and train French forces for high-intensity conflict.

Orion 23 is a four-part project, which began back in May 2022 and will end in May this year. It is a massive operation due to its geographical scope, time investment, and soldier involvement. It will include Army units and Navy ships, as well as Air Force and Space Force bases.

French General Yves Métayer is in charge of planning the operation within the army. He states France has never done a large-scale exercise over such a long period of time.