France's armed forces will launch phase two of their flagship Orion 26 military exercises in Saint-Nazaire, on the country's west coast, on Sunday. As war rages in Ukraine, more than 10,000 military personnel are preparing for high-intensity warfare in drills designed to ready France to defend European territory from a hostile state.
Orion – which stands for "large-scale operation for resilient, interoperable, high intensity combat-oriented and innovative armies" – was conceived in 2021. Two years later, France carried out its largest military exercises to date with Orion 23 – an operation involving 12,000 troops, including NATO allies.
