https://www.defensenews.com/air/2024...an-55-billion/
France buys 42 Rafale jets for more than $5.5 billion
PARIS — France has ordered 42 Rafale fighter jets from Dassault Aviation in a deal worth more than €5 billion (U.S. $5.5 billion), the Armed Forces Ministry announced Friday.
The purchase comes as French lawmakers express concerns about the Franco-German project to develop a successor to the Rafale. The
Future Combat Air System, as it’s known, isn’t expected to enter service before 2045 or 2050, according to the French Senate’s defense committee.
The French defense procurement agency notified Dassault Aviation as well as equipment suppliers Thales, Safran and MBDA of the contract for the fifth production phase of the aircraft, the ministry said.
“This is excellent news for our sovereignty and security, and for our armed forces, which will benefit from additional Rafales with modernized operational capabilities,” Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu said in a statement.
The Rafale entered service with the French Navy in 2004 and the French Air Force in 2006, and has seen action in Afghanistan, Libya, Mali, Iraq and Syria.
The latest contract brings the total number of Rafales ordered by France to 234, including a special order in 2021 for 12 fighters to replace aircraft transferred to Greece.
Export orders for the Rafale currently stand at 261 new aircraft; customers including
Egypt,
India, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia. In addition,
Greece and Croatia have each bought 12 secondhand Rafales from the French Air Force.
The new aircraft, meant for the
Air and Space Force, will be one-seater versions and fitted to the
F4 production standard, for which development started in 2018…
The jets are to received upgrades to the F5 standard in the 2030s, according to the ministry.
The Senate has called for Dassault Aviation to start work on the upgrade — which might include a loyal wingman UAV based on the European nEUROn combat drone program — as early as 2024 due to the uncertainty around the Future Combat Air System.
The FCAS could cost two to three times as much as a Rafale, while exports would be subject to approval by the German partner, senators said in a November report……