Dessin politique N°215 - Nouveau revers pour l'exportation européenne

Dessin politique 215 

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CONTRATS D'ARMEMENT : AU DERNIER MOMENT, L'ARABIE SAOUDITE PLAQUE AIRBUS ET EUROCOPTER POUR SE FOURNIR EN RUSSIE.
Poutine : "Mon message à la France donneuse de leçons ? On vous a bien niqués."

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Sur une idée de Pascal Lemaire

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L'Arabie saoudite change radicalement de politique d'approvisionnement

(Scoop diffusé sur son blog par Joseph Henrotin) 
 
C'est avec une certaine surprise que l'on a appris aujourd'hui le changement radical opéré par l'Arabie saoudite dans sa politique d'équipements militaires. Alors qu'Eurocopter, MBDA et Airbus Military négociaient un très gros contrat, le royaume s'est finalement tourné vers la Russie, en achetant 150 Mi-35 Hind et Mi-17 Hip pour 2,2 milliards de dollars.

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Evalué à 8,8 milliards d'euros, le contrat négocié par les Européens comprenait de 2 à 3 A-330 MRTT de ravitaillement en vol, 64 NH-90 (10 NFH et 54 TTH), 12 Tigre, 20 AS-532A2 de recherche et sauvetage au combat, 32 Fennec, 4 AS-565 Panther (Cf. notre brève "contrat du siècle pour EADS ?" dans DSI 18, septembre 2006). Des négociations semblaient également être menées dans l'optique de la vente de missiles Aster 30 et de chars Leclerc.

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A cet égard, l'Arabie saoudite s'orienterait vers des SAM russes de même que vers le T-90. Ce revirement serait le fait du roi lui-même qui a repris en main la politique d'armement. Or, la vente semblait avoir été négociée par l'Elysée au terme du dernier mandat de J. Chirac, entre-temps remplacé par N. Sarkozy sans, apparement, que la transition sur ce dossier n'ait correctement été opérée. Par ailleurs, des observateurs indiquent aussi que la politique sarkozyste en regard du Moyen Orient pourrait avoir également influé la décision saoudienne.

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Autre source, très intéressante :

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France Loses Out as Saudis Sign $2.2 Billion Deal for Russian Helos

sur http://www.defense-aerospace.com

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PARIS --- In an abrupt policy shift, Saudi Arabia has signed an agreement to buy over 150 Russian-made Mi-35 Hind and Mi-17 Hip helicopters worth over $2.2 billion, ending French hopes of sealing a long-delayed sale of 148 helicopters and raising doubts about future French arms sales to the Saudi kingdom.  
 
Sources say the Memorandum of Understanding with Russia was signed in Ryad in mid-September by members of the private cabinet of Saudi King Abdallah bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud, and follows extended visits to Russia by Saudi military delegations in February and March 2007 to appraise the capabilities of Russian helicopters and other weapons.  
 

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While the Saudis were willing as late as the fall of 2006 to sign two or three medium-sized helicopters deals, covering 42 Fennec light helicopters, 20 Cougar Combat Search and Rescue helicopters and 10 NFH-90 naval helicopters, sources say they indefinitely postponed these plans after French officials continued to insist that the package also include Rafales, several FREMM frigates and Gowind corvettes, and Leclerc tanks.  
 
“The idea of selling comprehensive packages was pushed by the Elysée [the French President’s office-Ed.] as a final coup for [former President Jacques] Chirac,” one industry official told defense-aerospace.com. “Now, Chirac’s gone, we’ve signed nothing, and we’re shut out of the Saudi market for the foreseeable future. A real success for France,” the official said.  
 
France has now conceded it will not sell Rafale to Saudi Arabia. “We haven’t discussed Rafale in Saudi Arabia. It’s not a current issue,” French Defense Minister Hervé Morin said Oct. 28 in Jeddah, after talks with Saudi leaders.  
 
[France is hoping that Libya, which has contracted to upgrade its obsolete Dassault Mirage F-1 fighters, may also agree to buy the Rafale, and an agreement could be announced during Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s forthcoming visit to Paris, possibly in December.]  
 
The Saudis are also said to be unhappy with what they perceive as French snubs. These include the French government’s failure to appoint an official of sufficiently high rank to head Sofresa, the arms export agency especially set up to handle contracts with Saudi Arabia. France’s use of local marketing networks that include individuals that are “persona non grata” at King Abdallah’s court is seen as another snub.  
 
France’s insistence on stuffing as many weapons as possible into arms deals has also been cited as one of the reasons why Morocco finally opted to buy the U.S.-made F-16 fighter instead of the Rafale, which Paris wanted to supply in a single package together with helicopters and corvettes.  
 
Another factor is that the election in May of Nicolas Sarkozy to succeed Chirac as French president has not gone down well with the Saudis, who take exception at his declarations that French diplomacy would in future distance itself from its traditional pro-Arab stance.  
 
The loss of the Saudi contracts, whose total value was estimated at well over 7 billion euros, is a severe loss for French industry, which is encountering growing difficulties in exporting its weapons in the face of cut-throat competition from the United States and Russia.  
 
Paris is now making a last-ditch attempt to salvage at least some Saudi deals, and President Sarkozy’s planned visit to Saudi Arabia, in January, might constitute such an opportunity. The sale of several Airbus tanker aircraft, and possibly of a reconnaissance satellite which Saudi Arabia would share with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, are two possibilities.  

The sale of Fennec light helicopters, which the Saudis need for pilot training, may finally go through simply because there is no direct Russian competitor, sources say, noting however that this sale is only worth about 300 million euros.