France overtakes Israel and regains fourth place in the world ranking of defense exporting powers
The French defense industry has managed to reverse the downward trend that had accumulated in recent years. In 2013, French arms export contracts increased by 31%, with a final value of 6.3 billion euros, which means that the country has once again regained fourth place in the ranking of major arms exporting countries, which had been taken from it by Israel in 2012, although the data for last year are not yet available.
This was confirmed last week by the Minister of Defense, Jean Yves Le Drian, who explained that 2013 has been a year of “great results” which are mainly due to eight major contracts, exceeding 200 million euros, which France has managed to close, as well as pointing out that French missiles continue to consolidate their position as “star orders”. These data contrast with those of 2012, where sales plunged by more than 25% compared to 2011 to reach 4.8 billion euros. Even so, it is still far from peaks such as that of 2009, when historic sales of 8.1 billion euros were reached. Source:
defensa.com
This was confirmed last week by the Minister of Defense, Jean Yves Le Drian, who explained that 2013 has been a year of “great results” which are mainly due to eight major contracts, exceeding 200 million euros, which France has managed to close, as well as pointing out that French missiles continue to consolidate their position as “star orders”. These data contrast with those of 2012, where sales plunged by more than 25% compared to 2011 to reach 4.8 billion euros. Even so, it is still far from peaks such as that of 2009, when historic sales of 8.1 billion euros were reached. Source: defensa.com
