I agree with you. This is not a simple bottom line deal. With the infusion of money from the USAF, Airbus will use it to strengthen their commercial development to take the commercial air business from Boeing. You do not see France buying US weapon systems for their military, when it is probably cheaper for them to tap into are larger production volumes (French military buys at lower volumes than larger US DoD). France understands that profits from the military side of a business can be applied to the commercial side also.
France buys E2-C Hawkeyes from Northrop Grumman. Quite an expensive Naval AWAC.