Are French munitions any good?
I know their cars have always been known for a good suspension but lousy reliability.
I can't speak for their munitions. But I worked for a company, who had a division in France where their nuclear pumps were made, that facility was first class and the work produced there for both the nuke level equipment, as well as high pressure pipeline and boiler feed, were as good as any similar facility I have seen in the US.
The problem is, Macron and his pals already spent their commissions from the cancelled deal.
One thing you’ve got to hand to the French, after WWII they decided to invest in their own defense industry and support domestic designs and manufacturing. They’ve been fairly successful and several of the largest international defense contractors are French. So yeah...they are quite capable of designing and manufacturing quality munitions. Their problem is largely political, not technical.
The old MAS 36 was good rifle.
“...Are French munitions any good?...”
In the mid ‘80’s I worked for an American military supplier subsidiary of Shchlumberger. The French companies tell the French military what the military is going to buy. As a result, they were still building a licensed Ford flathead V8 in the ‘60’s until the powerplant was so outdated it couldn’t power later vehicles. We would receive equipment we needed to build into our systems along with all the data saying it passed tests. But it didn’t work. Breaking the seals and opening it up we found it was lacking critical components. So, the data was a pure fraud so they could bill our company for the product. They said it was almost time for holidays in France and they had to ship it. They’d follow up with the finished components later. They booked a fraudulent sale so they’d get on time bonuses and we ate dirt in front of our customers. As far as quality, their hardware was moderately good but nothing exciting. An engineer once told me, “the French won’t copy anybody. And, NOBODY copies the French.”
The Char B1 bis was superior to anything the Germans had at the beginning of World War 2. And the Marder I was a German gun stuck on a French vehicle.
The problem with the post-Napoleonic French military has never been the hardware.
“Are French munitions any good?
I know their cars have always been known for a good suspension but lousy reliability.”
Nonsense! The Citroen 2CV engine is the most reliable two cylinder, air cooled engine ever installed in a four wheeled vehicle! (Don’t forget that the 2 CV Safari had TWO engines - front and back - allowing it to have four wheel drive)!
Three wheeled vehicles is an entire matter altogether...(Morgans, BMW Isetta’s, etc.)
/sarc