Almost twelve billion euros
Paris reports doubling of arms exports
09/12/2022, 8:31 p.m
In terms of global arms exports, France ranks third after the USA and Russia. For 2021, Paris expects exports to double to almost twelve billion euros. It is also a record year for German arms shops.
France more than doubled its arms exports last year to a value of 11.7 billion euros. This is the third highest result overall, Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu wrote on Twitter. In the previous year, arms exports had reached 4.9 billion euros due to the corona pandemic. This puts France in third place after the USA and Russia in the list of arms exporters.
The largest share was the sale of Rafale fighter jets: last year France sold 30 new fighter jets to Egypt and six new and twelve used fighter jets to Greece. Twelve used Rafale aircraft also went to Croatia. The Czech Republic bought 52 Caesar-type artillery systems. According to Challenges magazine, Egypt was the largest customer with orders worth 4.5 billion euros, ahead of Greece, Croatia, India and Saudi Arabia. Exports to Europe accounted for about 38 percent.
“It is already certain that the current year will also bring significant results,” wrote Lecornu, referring to a contract for 80 Rafale aircraft with the United Arab Emirates and six more fighter jets for Greece.
Germany with highest annual value ever
Germany also set a record last year. In 2021, individual licenses amounting to almost 9.4 billion euros were granted, according to the federal government’s arms export report from the end of August. This is “the highest annual approval value to date”. In 2020, the volume was 5.8 billion euros.
Like France, the German government is also expecting a further increase in exports for the current year because of the Ukraine war. According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, the export of armaments worth almost 5.1 billion euros had already been approved by August 24 this year. In the same period of the previous year, the value was around 2.9 billion euros. According to the information, 76 percent of the armaments licenses granted this year related to EU, NATO or NATO-equivalent countries.