Posted Sep 27, 2022, 7:22 PM
Parliament discussed yesterday the annual report presented by the Ministry of the Armed Forces on French arms exports. But to the great dissatisfaction of the NGOs, the demanded transparency exercise once again did not take place, because the examination was held behind closed doors. In addition, the report posted online on Monday shows no change in the data provided despite promises made following a critical parliamentary report. As in the past, the report is built on aggregate sales figures but does not detail exactly what is sold and especially to whom.
Thus we learn that France recorded last year 11.7 billion euros in order intake in 2021. This is the third best exercise in history in terms of arms exports. Knowing that the year 2022 will be exceptional, and will undoubtedly post an amount of sales almost twice as large since it will include the exceptional order for the purchase of 80 Rafale fighter planes by the United Arab Emirates and the sale to Greece of three FDI-type frigates ordered from Naval Group and six new Rafale aircraft, France still remains in the top 5 of defense exporters.
Exports driven by Rafale sales
Among the contracts signed in 2021 are the sale to Egypt of 30 additional Rafale, that to Greece of 18 Rafale aircraft including 12 new of six used and finally the sale of 12 used Rafale aircraft to Croatia.
Among the major contracts, there is also the sale of 52 Caesar artillery systems to the Czech Republic and a contract for 10 H145M helicopters, radars, ground-to-air defense systems and radio stations to Serbia. Otherwise, the base of “small contracts”, which combine sales of less than 200 million, amounts to 4.1 billion euros.
The report presented does not offer much information on the transfers of equipment to Ukraine, which have taken place since the outbreak of the war on February 24th. We just know that France has recourse to legal mechanisms of free assignments which make it possible to deliver equipment already operational in an emergency. This mechanism was limited to 50 million euros per year in 2021, a ceiling raised to 300 million euros “in order to allow deliveries of important equipment such as Caesar guns”
Over ten years, France’s main customers are in the Middle East and India. Egypt comes first followed by India in second position, then by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The rebalancing towards Europe is starting: Belgium is our sixth partner and Greece our seventh. We can also note that the United States is indeed a customer of the French armaments industry, since over the period 2012-2021, it is our ninth customer.
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