Eurenco Revives France’s Gunpowder Industry After 17-Year Pause

France’s gunpowder production, discontinued in 2007, has resumed with new facilities designed to support Europe’s defense needs, including artillery shells bound for Ukraine.

Reuters reported on March 21 that French defense company Eurenco’s manufacturing plant in Bergerac’s automated systems turn raw materials into explosives for artillery shells.

The company is the first in France to restart this production, demonstrating Europe’s ability to rebuild parts of its defense industrial base.

“To see that a country like France dropped its gunpowder production capacities at the start of the 2000s made absolutely no sense,” Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said. “We were capable of producing the body of the bomb, the modular charge, but not capable of producing the powder needed inside so we were dependent sometimes on Europeans, but other times from outside the European Union.”

Eurenco’s facility was built in less than a year with €100 million in funding, half of which came from an EU defense industry support program.

Production is set to reach 1,200 tons of powder annually, increasing to 1,800 tons, enough for about 100,000 artillery shells, notably the NATO-standard 155-millimeter caliber used in Caesar howitzers.

Russia’s capacity remains significantly larger, producing 30 times more gunpowder, according to the report.

France has produced gunpowder since the 14th century. Eurenco continued that tradition until 2007, when it shifted powder production to affiliates in Sweden and Germany, leaving France dependent on foreign supply.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has led European countries to rethink defense production amid concerns about Russian aggression and the reliability of US support.

Damien Ayesa, Eurenco’s project director, said 10 percent of production would be for domestic use, with the remainder for export, much of it destined for Ukraine. Production lines will run around the clock.

The ramp-up has not been without challenges. Strict safety regulations and sourcing raw materials remain issues.

While two of the three key elements for the pellets are now produced in France, the third still comes from abroad. “Our objective is to be autonomous and sovereign,” Ayesa said.

Earlier, a French E-3CF AWACS aircraft, escorted by Rafale fighter jets and supported by an aerial refueling tanker, conducted a reconnaissance mission over the Black Sea on March 12, according to Flightradar24. The operation followed similar activity on March 5 and reflects ongoing French efforts to bolster intelligence-sharing with Ukraine.