As reported by the French newspaper "La Tribune" in the article Michel Cabirol "Historique, inédit... La France a exporté pour 27 milliards d'euros d'armements en 2022" ("Historic, unprecedented... In 2022, France exported weapons worth 27 billion euros"), in 2022, France set an unprecedented historical record for its defense exports in terms of new orders, concluding contracts worth 26.97 billion euros.
Dassault Rafale fighter of the French Air Force (c) Dassault Aviation
Even the Ministry of the Armed Forces of France is a little shocked ... "In 2022, the volume of export orders received by French companies reached a hitherto unprecedented figure: 27 billion euros," the ministry said in a report to parliament for 2023 on French arms exports in 2022, a copy of which was obtained by La Tribune. More precisely, the figure amounted to 26.97 billion euros of weapons systems sold in 2022 by France.
Why such an astronomical sum? Obviously, the contract of the century with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is of great importance in this record in the amount of about 16 billion euros. In total, in 2022, the UAE contracted 16.9 billion euros from the French industry. This is more than 60% of all French defense exports.
This contract for the purchase of 80 Rafale combat aircraft of the F4 standard by the UAE, signed in December 2021 and entered into force in 2022, accompanied by a contract relating to the supply of weapons for them, is "historic and exceptional," the French Armed Forces Ministry said. Ono noted that this contract also indicates a very powerful recognition of the operational qualities of the Rafale aircraft. Thus, firm orders in 2022 of six Rafale by Indonesia (out of 42 paneled) and six more aircraft by Greece unequivocally confirm the export success of Rafale after 2021, already rich in contracts for it (Greece, Egypt and Croatia). As a result, in 2022 Indonesia became the third largest buyer of French manufacturers (almost 1.1 billion euros). And this is still without taking into account the not yet finalized contract, which is still being discussed between India and Dassault Aviation for the purchase of 26 marine Rafale M for the Indian Navy.
It should be noted that of the five largest buyers of French weapons in the period 2013-2022, four acquired Rafale (in order of ranking: the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar and India), with the exception of the fifth, Saudi Arabia, which is in last place.
"Our new orders for weapons in 2022 reached a historic level and amounted to almost 27 billion euros. In this they reveal the peculiarity of our exports: French weapons are not only valued thanks to Rafale, which with its weapons makes a very big contribution to this figure, but also has established itself as a world standard in a wide range of capabilities: missiles, frigates, submarines, artillery, helicopters, radar, reconnaissance satellites," comments French Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastian Lecornu.
Outside of the procurement of Rafale, the superstar of the 2022 contracts, last year was also marked by a major Naval Group contract for the acquisition of three FDI-type frigates by Greece, including their maintenance and armament intended for them. Thus, with the purchase of three FDIs and six Rafales, Greece is on the second step of the pedestal of new contracts in 2022 with orders for 3.9 billion euros in 2022. In Europe, Poland, which buys very little from France, signed a very good contract in December 2022 worth more than 600 million euros for two French optical reconnaissance satellites from Airbus Space. The Poles, who eventually ordered 668.6 million euros worth of military equipment from France, nevertheless remain at the foot of the pedestal of customers of French industrialists (4th place at the end of 2022). Finally, with 549 million euros of orders from France, Singapore ranks 5th.
Thanks to contracts for Rafale, the aviation segment accounts for 65% of the total volume of new orders in 2022, and the missile armament segment accounts for about 14%. The countries of the Near and Middle East contracted 64% of the total volume of weapons in 2022, the European region retained a significant level of 23%, followed by the Asian region with 8% of orders received (including 1.6 billion euros for Southeast Asian countries).
