Dassault Aviation says France would guarantee 85 pct of Polish Mirage deal

WARSAW (AFX) – Dassault Aviation vice-president for international
relations, Yves Robins, said the French government is prepared to guarantee 85 pct of a credit needed by Poland to buy Mirage 2000-5 fighter planes.
“The French government will guarantee 85 pct of the credit, 15 pct being up to the Polish government,” Robins told a news conference.
A Dassault-led consortium is competing with the UK’s BAE Systems PLC and Lockheed Martin Corp in a tender to supply the planes.
Poland, which joined NATO in 1999, needs to buy new fighter planes to
replace its obsolete Soviet built MIG-21s.
Robins estimated the price of a Mirage 2000-5 Mk2 at around 40 mln usd.
He said the French consortium, which also includes Snecma, Thales and MBDA, had offered to invest at least 100 pct of the price in Poland over 10 years.
Half of the investment would be in the Polish arms industry, while the
remainder would be in areas such as shipbuilding, steel, the chemicals industry and the environment, he said.
In order to win the tender, BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin have pledged to offset any sales of their Gripen and F-16 fighters with business in Poland.
The three competitors in the tender have until Nov 12 to lodge their offers.
The Polish government has set a Dec 28 deadline for a decision.