The 2023 report on French defense equipment exports confirms a ten-year-old rule: apart from Dassault Aviation’s Rafale fighter jet, there are no good annual results. Orders amounted to €8.2 billion, according to the annual report of the Ministry of the Armed Forces to Parliament for 2024, published by the news site MediapartThey are significantly down compared to 2022 (26.9 billion), a year which was marked by the order of 80 Rafale (16.9 billion) by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but also down compared to 2021 (11.7 billion).
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Rafale: “Like any industrialist spurred on by soaring military budgets, Dassault Aviation is stepping up its pace”
Add to your selections
The entourage of Sébastien Lecornu, the resigning Minister of the Armed Forces, announced on Wednesday, September 4, that the document would be made public. “outside current business period”. In his introduction, he notes that after an exceptional year due to the Emirati contract, 2023 is “more balanced”. This decline comes at a time when global military spending recorded its largest increase in a decade in 2023. Ongoing conflicts, including the one in Ukraine, and rising tensions (Middle East, Taiwan, etc.) have pushed it to $2,443 billion (€2,200 billion), or +6.8% in real terms, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The year 2023 saw Indonesia order 18 Rafale (for 2.6 billion euros) and the signing of several contracts worth more than 200 million: Caesar cannons from KNDS-Nexter for Lithuania, three corvettes from the Normandy company CMN for Angola, four Patroller tactical drones and their ground control center manufactured by Safran for Greece. In descending order, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, India, Angola and Ukraine were the largest customers of the French defense industrial and technological base.
Export dynamics
The government expects a much better 2024 balance sheet, boosted by several major contracts: Rafale, with the 12 aircraft for Serbia, announced during Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Belgrade, and the 18 Navy version units intended for India, confirmation of which is expected at the end of the year; and the four Barracuda-class submarines that Naval Group will build in Cherbourg (Manche) for the Netherlands, if the contract is finally signed in the coming months.
Rather, we should look at the dynamics of exports, believes the Ministry of the Armed Forces. “While 2023 may seem relatively modest in terms of order intake, this does not correspond to an underlying trend.the report states. The evolution of our exports must be assessed over longer time scales because the annual balance sheet is very fluctuating, depending on the number and amount of major contracts that come into force during the year. This is particularly the case of the Rafale, the export of which only began in 2015, eleven years after its naval version entered service.
You have 47.18% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
Related News :