fter being called in to the defence ministry to explain the little matter of how its Rafale fighter was invoiced to cost €1.5bn more than the quote for 2004 and 2005, Dassault was confident of getting signatures for 59 aircraft, for the French airforce and navy.

The latest order is expected to cost the taxpayer some €3bn with the money going to Dassault, the engine maker Snecma and Thalès for the electronics. Overall the Rafale programme is set to cost the French government €33bn over 30 years.

Next year Dassault and EADS, which has only just started deliveries of its much delayed and increasingly criticised Eurofighter to the Royal Air Force, are likely to be fighting each other and the US firm Lockheed for an order from the Singapore airforce.

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France to buy 59 Rafale jets from Dassault

PARIS, Sept 22 (Reuters) - France has reached agreement with combat and corporate jet maker Dassault Aviation over the purchase of 59 Rafale planes, Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on Wednesday.
The contract, estimated to be worth about 3 billion euros, should be signed in the coming weeks, she said.

"Negotiations for the order of 59 Rafale jets have been completed," the minister said during the presentation of her ministry's 2005 budget.

"That means the order should be made very soon," she added, saying that it should be signed before the end of the year.

Around half of the 3 billion euros involved would go to Dassault Aviation , with some 600 million going to aeronautic engine-maker Snecma and 500 million to Thales , which supplies the jet's radar and other electronic equipment, said defence ministry spokesman responsible for arms, Francois Lureau.

Delivery and payment are expected to take place between 2008 and 2012.

A source close to the defence ministry also said France could make eight of the 59 Rafales available to Singapore if the Asian country opted for the combat jet, repeating a story reported in Wednesday's La Tribune newspaper.

That would be Dassault Aviation's first export order for the Rafale, which is competing for Singapore's business with Boeing's F-15, and Eurofighter developed by European aerospace firm EADS , Britain's BAE Systems and Italy's Finmeccanica .

The 59 new jets, which will be made to the latest F3 standard, bring the number of aircraft France's defence ministry has under order to 120.

A key point in the negotiations between the companies and the state was the sharing of the cost of updating the equipment used to make the jets between the two sides. The F3 requires more modern equipment than that used to make earlier versions of the aircraft.


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