(Bloomberg) — Dassault Aviation SA won an $8.1 billion order from Indonesia for 42 Rafale fighter planes and weapons, extending a successful run for the French defense supplier as it stakes a claim to lead Europe’s next warplane program.
The Asian nation signed a contract for the jets at a ceremony in Jakarta Thursday, Dassault said in a statement, finalizing a deal that the manufacturer has been seeking to pin down for years.
The value of the contract was confirmed by the French defense ministry.
Shares of Dassault rose as much as 5.5% in Paris, where the company is based. They traded 4.5% higher at 115.10 euros as of 4:19 p.m., taking gains this year to 21%.
Securing the purchase marks another coup for Dassault, after it inked a bumper order for 80 Rafales from the United Arab Emirates in December following earlier deals for the model from Greece and Croatia and a follow-on purchase from Egypt earlier in 2021.
The order for the Indonesian National Army Air Force also covers aircrew training, logistical support for several air bases and a training center equipped with two full-mission simulators, according to the statement.
France and Indonesia also signed a memorandum of understanding for a broader defense pact that could include submarine development and satellite procurement.
Dassault booked 49 Rafale orders last year, including a dozen for the French military. That doesn’t include the UAE’s 80-jet purchase, valued at 14 billion euros ($16 billion). The emirates also ordered weaponry and helicopters for about 3 billion euros.
The Rafale entered service in 2004, but the first order outside France came only in 2015 with an initial contract with Egypt for 24 jets, to which another 30 were added last year.
Next Fighter
The spate of contracts may have strengthened Dassault’s hand in a Franco-German battle for supremacy in the development of the New Generation Fighter, slated to enter service in about 2040, on which it’s seeking to cooperate with the German arm of Airbus SE.
Read more: Franco-German Dispute Stalls New European Fighter-Jet Plans
Dassault Chief Executive Officer Eric Trappier said last month that the project has become bogged down over the division of labor, and that Airbus must accept that for the development phase of the aircraft “the expertise will be in France” and that “Dassault will be the leader.”
The impasse comes nearly five years after French and German heads of state agreed on an air-combat alliance that included the new jet.
That left Britain — currently partnered with Airbus on the Eurofighter, which competes with the Rafale — out in the cold in the wake of the country’s decision to leave the European Union.
London-based BAE Systems Plc, Europe’s biggest defense firm, has gone on to develop a rival warplane, the Tempest, and recruited Italy’s Leonardo SpA and Sweden’s Saab AB to its camp.
(Adds value of plane order in first paragraph.)
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