PARIS,Febrauary1,2012(AFP): India’s selection of the French firm Dassault as the preferred bidder for 126 fighter jets worth an estimated $12 billion (nine billion euros) underlines France’s role as one of the world’s top exporters of advanced weapons.Although the French government said sales in 2010 — the most recent year for which figures are available — were down 37 percent to the equivalent of 5.12 billion euros, the country remained in fourth position as an arms exporter behind the United States, Russia and Germany. Over the decade from 2001 to 2010, India was the third-largest purchaser of French arms, behind Saudi Arabia and Brazil and ahead of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to the defence ministry in Paris. Among major export contracts won by France: · Contracts for the provision of six A330-MRTT aircraft, the in-flight refuelling aircraft developed by the European Airbus consortium, to Saudi Arabia. A contract for three of the craft was signed in 2007, with a second deal for three more reached in 2009. France also has contracts to provide military helicopters to Saudi Arabia. · The sale of 400 Leclerc battle tanks to the UAE, a deal clinched in 1993 at an estimated cost of 3.4 billion dollars and completed in 2005. · A 2005 deal to provide six diesel-powered Scorpene submarines to India, with an estimated value of 2.4 billion euros. France has also sold four Scorpene submarines to Brazil and two each to Chile and Malaysia. · In December 2008, France reached an agreement with Brazil for the sale of 50 EC-725 transport helicopters at an estimated cost of 1.9 billion euros. The contract was announced at the same time as the sale of six Scorpene submarines to Brazil, which was estimated to bring in 4.1 billion euros for France. · The sale of three “stealth” frigates to Saudi Arabia, reached in 1994 at an estimated price of 4.27 billion euros. The first vessel was delivered in 2002.
