A month after the canceled sale of twelve French submarines to Australia, the Elysee Palace asked the General Secretariat for Defense and National Security (SGDSN) to coordinate a large-scale introspection on the causes of this failure , could intersect The world from several sources, confirming information from theOpinion. An exercise in “retex” (feedback) as sensitive as it is political in the current period, on areas which affect diplomacy, the defense industry, as well as arms exports and the sharing of weapons. nuclear technology, or intelligence.
According to our information, the decision was taken by the defense council on September 21. That is to say a week after the surprise announcement of the birth of “Aukus”, this new strategic alliance between Canberra, the United States and the United Kingdom, which resulted in the cancellation of the contract between Naval Group and the Australians. The objective is to learn all the lessons from the scuttling of this sale which had been bitterly negotiated since 2016, before being the subject of a formal signature, in 2019, for an amount of 8 billion euros. , French side (out of a total of 31 billion euros).
Multiplication of warning signals
The possible blind spots of French foreign intelligence will in particular be among the subjects examined. Since the outbreak of the case on September 15, the question has been asked regularly: should the Directorate General for External Security (DGSE) have better oriented its sensors while the warning signals were multiplying? Could it technically and did it have the necessary human resources? On October 6, its director general, Bernard Emié, was heard by the foreign affairs and defense committee, but the hearing was held behind closed doors and will not be reported on.
More generally, the effectiveness of intelligence and intelligence resources in economic matters is a subject of recurring concern within the governing circles. In December 2020, this subject was even the subject of an audit by the inspection of the intelligence services, whose report is classified. Economic intelligence under the “Protection of the major industrial and scientific interests of the nation” concerned, between 2019 and 2020, 60% of requests for the implementation of intelligence techniques (interception, data collection, geolocation, etc.) of the DGSE.
Beyond the field of intelligence, which some observers consider to be an ancillary aspect of this affair, the experience feedback exercise requested by the Elysee should be an opportunity to review more broadly the other weaknesses of the French model of sovereignty which potentially led to the crisis. Whether in its industrial, military, commercial, digital or political aspects. The SGDSN, attached to the Prime Minister, is used to these major interministerial exercises.