France’s defence ministry has announced new orders worth €4 billion ($4.7 billion), with its efforts around “strengthening defence capabilities and defence innovation” having totalled €12 billion through the first half of this year.
Part of an expected total military spend of €31 billion by Paris in 2025, the first-half awards were nearly €2 billion higher than last year, and “equivalent to the entire 2019 military planning year” in value terms, its DGA defence procurement agency notes.
A total of €318 million in allocations to Dassault Aviation includes funds to “launch the risk mitigation study for the future F5 standard for the Rafale, the continuation of Rafale aircraft production, and NGWS [New Generation Weapon System] work”, the DGA says.
It also will support “the launch of work on a spaceplane demonstrator”, announced at the Paris air show on 20 June. “This demonstrator represents the first step in a roadmap for the development of a family of spaceplanes called Vortex”, the airframer says.
Key activities will include developing the “configuration of a spaceplane, control of hypersonic flight, advanced thermal protection technologies and flight control”, Dassault adds.
Meanwhile, part of Thales’s overall €725 million in awards will facilitate the “development of data links for Rafale”, the DGA says. The type’s F5 operating standard will enter service early next decade, with other enhancements likely to include a T-Rex performance update for its Safran M88 engines, and potentially the use of range-extending conformal fuel tanks.
Among other contracts, Safran’s €128 million will include accelerating production of its AASM air-to-surface weapon, while MBDA’s €69 million allocation is to cover activities including “continuation of the Exocet anti-ship missile”.
Some of the €89 million in total funding for Airbus will cover the production of H225M Caracal helicopters on order for the French air force.
The DGA also has disclosed awarding Sabena Technics a contract to provide a “new-generation testbed aircraft”, without disclosing further details.
“The pace of orders must accelerate by the end of the year in order to complete the 2025 fiscal year in accordance with the terms of the 2024-2030 Military Planning Act,” the procurement body notes. Total spending over that period is expected to reach €268 billion.
