BY : DEFENSE NEWS





French President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to throw his political weight behind efforts to sell the Rafale fighter jet when he makes a state visit to Morocco at the end of October, in a bid to counter a U.S. offer of F-16s, French newspapers reported Sept. 21.
“The Elysées [presidential office] has taken the matter in hand,” Le Monde reported. The president’s spokesman, David Martinou, told journalists Sept. 20 “the Rafale is a good deal,” and experts view it as “the best plane in the world.”
Morocco has effectively decided in favor of a U.S. offer of 36 F-16s for less than $2 billion, La Tribune reported on its Web site. As a riposte, the French authorities have proposed 24 Rafales for 2 billion euros ($2.8 billion), or 12 Rafales and 12 Mirage 2000-9 fighters, the most capable of the 2000 series, the paper reported. A previous offer consisted of 18 Rafales for 2.3 billion euros.
A Ministry of Defense official said, “Negotiations are still going on, and while no decision has been made, it would be premature to make any comments. It is up to Morocco to decide.”
A spokesman for Dassault, the French aircraft company, declined comment, saying the matter was a government-to-government issue. Dassault builds both the Rafale and the Mirage.
The advisers working on the French offer are diplomats, not industrial specialists, indicating the essentially political nature of the deal, a defense official said. The Rafale may be technically capable the plane has scored well in trials in tenders held by South Korea and Singapore but the political dimension is uppermost, the official said. The Asian countries chose U.S.-built aircraft.
The Rafale was not invited for trials in Saudi Arabia, which has just signed for 72 Eurofighter Typhoons. Poland, as a new member of NATO and the European Union, chose the F-16.
Remarks by Defense Minister Hervé Morin on Sept. 11 on the Rafale’s failure to find export buyers, implying it is too sophisticated, upset industry leaders who regard it as France’s technological flagship.
France has historically held close ties to francophone Morocco, and a loss of that market to the United States would be a severe political and commercial blow to Paris.