France gets a lesson in the perils of state support

The Globe and Mail, Canada ^ | October 15, 2010 | Carl Mortished

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France gets a lesson in the perils of state support

By Carl Mortished

Special to Globe and Mail Update

President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to sell France as a leader in transport and energy but the country's high-tech champions are plagued with difficulties

My dictionary translates rafale as a squall or blustery gust of wind, an appropriate name for Dassault's Rafale fighter jet, the pride of the French air force which is about to cause windows and doors to slam in the Elysee palace, disturbing the political peace of President Sarkozy.

With a shriek and a blast from its after-burners, the Rafale is flying too low over Paris. Dassault has been unable to achieve a single foreign sale of the stylish French bird of prey, which is even more unaffordable than the Eurofighter Typhoon, its keen rival and a European project which France abandoned decades ago in order to support Dassault's design. The only extant interest is a potential Brazilian order but even there Sweden is competing with Saab's cheap and cheerful Gripen, and in order to keep the Rafale in the air, the government is to purchase for the French air force a further 11 Rafales at a cost of €800-million.

It's not good timing while French men and women take to the streets to defend their right to early retirement, but President Sarkozy could probably get away with bunging money at a great piece of French technology if the whole affair was not tainted with political favouritism. The President's socialist opponents say the Rafale order is a reward to Serge Dassault, a political friend of the President, for the former's plan to buy Le Parisien, a newspaper. Mr Dassault already owns Le Figaro and with students taking to the