PARIS: France’s Dassault Aviation is looking to ramp up production of its Rafale combat planes, its CEO said on Sunday, after President Emmanuel Macron said the country would increase orders.
European countries including France have been seeking to boost defense spending and increase weapons production in the face of possible US security disengagement and Russian aggression linked to the war in Ukraine.
Macron said on Tuesday that France was going to “increase and accelerate Rafale orders.”
Dassault Aviation chief executive Eric Trappier said the company had increased output from one war plane a month in 2020 to more than two per month this year, and was working with suppliers to be able to produce combat planes even faster.
“We are planning to deliver three per month next year, and four from 2028-2029,” he told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper.
“We have heard the president’s call and are studying the possibility of ramping up to five Rafale per month. There are no concrete orders yet, but we want to be ready,” he said.
However, he did not say when this might be possible.
Trappier said that, if the French government approved, the company would also be “ready to provide its services” to any country reviewing its orders for US-made F-35 combat planes since President Donald Trump took office.
On Friday, Germany said it was committed to buying F-35 fighter jets despite reports that it was reconsidering due to worries about an over-reliance on US defense supplies.
But Canada said last week it was reviewing a major purchase of F-35s amid serious tensions over tariffs and Trump threatening to annex the country.
That announcement came two days after Portugal said it, too, was re-examining a possible purchase of F-35 fighter jets.
Trappier said that Portugal had not yet reached out to his company.
Last year, France’s air force had 108 Rafale jets, and the navy had 41. France was due to receive 56 additional aircraft before Macron’s announcement.
The defense minister last month said the air force needed 20 to 30 more Rafales to face a crisis scenario.
France’s Dassault says upping Rafale warplane output
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France’s Dassault says upping Rafale warplane output
- EU countries have been seeking to boost defense spending in the face of possible US security disengagement and Russian aggression
- Macron said that France was going to 'increase and accelerate Rafale orders'
Venezuela’s acting president calls for oil industry reforms to attract more foreign investment
- In her speech, Rodríguez said money earned from foreign oil sales would go into two funds: one dedicated to social services for workers and the public health care system, and another to economic development and infrastructure projects
CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez used her first state of the union address on Thursday to promote oil industry reforms that would attract foreign investment, an objective aggressively pushed by the Trump administration since it toppled the country’s longtime leader less than two weeks ago.
Rodríguez, who has been under pressure from the US to fall in line with its vision for the oil-rich nation, said sales of Venezuelan oil would go to bolster crisis-stricken health services, economic development and other infrastructure projects.
While she sharply criticized the Trump administration and said there was a “stain on our relations,” the former vice president also outlined a distinct vision for the future between the two historic adversaries, straying from her predecessors, who have long railed against American intervention in Venezuela.
“Let us not be afraid of diplomacy” with the US, said Rodriguez, who must now navigate competing pressures from the Trump administration and a government loyal to former President Nicolás Maduro.
The speech, which was broadcast on a delay in Venezuela, came one day after Rodríguez said her government would continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro in what she described as “a new political moment” since his ouster.
Trump on Thursday met at the White House with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro. But in endorsing Rodríguez, who served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, Trump has sidelined Machado.
In her speech, Rodríguez said money earned from foreign oil sales would go into two funds: one dedicated to social services for workers and the public health care system, and another to economic development and infrastructure projects.
Hospitals and other health care facilities across the country have long suffered. Patients are asked to provide practically all supplies needed for their care, from syringes to surgical screws. Economic turmoil, among other factors, has pushed millions of Venezuelans to migrate from the South American nation in recent years.
In moving forward, the acting president must walk a tightrope, balancing pressures from both Washington and top Venezuelan officials who hold sway over Venezuela’s security forces and strongly oppose the US Her recent public speeches reflect those tensions — vacillating from conciliatory calls for cooperation with the US, to defiant rants echoing the anti-imperialist rhetoric of her toppled predecessor.
American authorities have long railed against a government they describe as a “dictatorship,” while Venezuela’s government has built a powerful populist ethos sharply opposed to US meddling in its affairs.
For the foreseeable future, Rodríguez’s government has been effectively relieved of having to hold elections. That’s because when Venezuela’s high court granted Rodríguez presidential powers on an acting basis, it cited a provision of the constitution that allows the vice president to take over for a renewable period of 90 days.
Trump enlisted Rodríguez to help secure US control over Venezuela’s oil sales despite sanctioning her for human rights violations during his first term. To ensure she does his bidding, Trump threatened Rodríguez earlier this month with a “situation probably worse than Maduro.”
Maduro, who is being held in a Brooklyn jail, has pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking charges.
Before Rodríguez’s speech on Thursday, a group of government supporters was allowed into the presidential palace, where they chanted for Maduro, who the government insists remains the country’s president. “Maduro, resist, the people are rising,” they shouted.
