France doubled arms exports in 2021 and will double in 2022. Macron’s business
French arms exports more than doubled in 2021, reaching € 11.7 billion, thanks to sales of Rafale fighters, according to the annual report to Parliament presented by Challenges . “With 11.7 billion euros of orders in 2021, France has the third-highest historical level of arms exports. It is already assumed that 2022 will also be characterized by significant results ”, writes the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, in the introduction to the report.
The report will be presented by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the Economy and the Armed Forces in a closed-door hearing at the National Assembly on 27 September. There will also be another hearing in the Senate.
This result confirms France as the third world exporter of military equipment, after the United States and Russia.
It comes after a year 2020 in decline (4.9 billion euros) due to the constraints related to the health crisis and exceeds the volume of orders taken in 2019 (8.3 billion). French arms companies had done better only in 2015 (16.9 billion) and 2016 (13.9 billion) thanks to the sales of the Rafale. In 2021, Dassault fighter contracts are once again driving the rebound: France sold six new and twelve second-hand aircraft to Greece, twelve second-hand to Croatia and another 30 new Rafale to Egypt. In total, the aeronautics accounted for nearly 70% of the orders acquired, compared to the usual 30%.
Other major contracts include the sale of 52 Caesar guns to the Czech Republic and ten H145M helicopters, radar and ground-to-air systems to Serbia. The small contract base (under € 200 million) reached € 4.1 billion. According to Challenges, Egypt was the first customer in Paris with 4.5 billion euros of orders, ahead of Greece, Croatia, India and Saudi Arabia.
Exports to Europe, where France is trying to reorient its business, accounted for 38% of new orders in 2021.
2022 should also be promising for French exports. Among these, the mega-contract for 80 Rafale for the Emirates and the sale of another six aircraft and three frigates to Greece and this without counting the impromptu exports to Ukraine, including over 50 Cesar self-propelled guns, anti-aircraft systems and systems French anti-tank.
So Paris is confirmed as the largest European arms producer and exporter, also due to the official support of the government for the expansion operations of the arms manufacturing companies.
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The article France doubled arms exports in 2021 and will double in 2022. Macron's business comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-francia-ha-raddoppiato-lexport-di-armi-nel-2021-e-doppiera-nel-2022-gli-affari-di-macron/ on Tue, 13 Sep 2022 10:00:54 +0000.