French Arms Sales: A 2021 Update

12/09/2021
By Pierre Tran Paris – France expects to win arms export orders worth more than €30 billion ($34 billion) spread over this year and 2022, mainly due to sales of the Rafale fighter jet, Thierry Carlier, head of the international development department of the Direction Générale de l’Armement procurement office,…

Moving Beyond Its Legacy Fleet of Mirages and F-16s: The UAE Adds Rafales to Its F-35 Buy

12/03/2021
By Pierre Tran Paris – The United Arab Emirates signed Dec. 3, 2021 contracts worth a total €17 billion ($19 billion) for 80 Dassault Aviation Rafale fighter jets, MBDA missiles, and 12 Airbus Helicopter Caracal H225M helicopters, the armed forces ministry said. The UAE Tawazun arms acquisition authority signed Rafale…

An Update on Dassault: July 2021

07/28/2021
By Pierre Tran Paris – Industry and government are still in contract talks for studies on a technology demonstrator for a European fighter jet, Dassault Aviation said in a July 22 statement on first-half financial results. “The contract for phase 1B (under negotiation) is still to be signed,” the company…

An Update on KNDS: June 2021

06/19/2021
By Pierre Tran Paris – The land weapons industry faced a double challenge with the pandemic crisis hitting defense spending and army projects competing with air force systems, which were due to receive higher funding, Franco-German joint venture KNDS said June 14. “The budgets of our most important customers are…

French Arms Exports, 2020

06/06/2021
By Pierre Tran Paris – France last year won arms export contracts worth €4.9 billion ($5.6 billion), down from €8.3 billion in 2019, reflecting lock down and governments freezing military budgets in response to the pandemic crisis, Hervé Grandjean, spokesman for the defense ministry, said June 2. “This retreat is…