Story ID: 
Dassault’s Defense Business Still Thriving
By: Chris Pocock
Caption: Mirage upgrade contract and Neuron flight test extension adds to earnings from Rafale.
Word Count: 271
The defense business of Dassault Aviation has been boosted by a new contract to upgrade French Air Force Mirage 2000Ds; continuing deliveries of Rafale fighters to France and Egypt; and a new flight-test phase for the Neuron UCAS demonstrator.

The Mirage 2000D entered service in 1993 as a conventional strike and ground attack aircraft. Fifty-five of them remain in service, and Dassault said that it would be improving their weapons systems, adding a gun pod and making provision for the carriage of MBDA Mica air-air missiles. Financial data in the company’s first quarter 2016 results statement suggest that this upgrade contract will be worth well over €200 million.

By the end of June, Dassault had delivered 146 of the 180 Rafales ordered by the French Air Force and Navy. Egypt had received six of the 24 aircraft that it ordered in February 2015. The only other confirmed export customer for the Rafale is Qatar, which has not yet received any of the 24 aircraft that it ordered in May 2015. Negotiations to sell 36 Rafales to India are dragging on, despite the signing of an inter-government MoU last January. The talks reportedly stalled on aerospace R&D assistance and offset provisions. These include French help to advance India’s faltered development of the Kaveri engine for the indigenous Tejas combat aircraft, and subcontracts to Indian companies for Rafale parts.

Dassault said that the additional flight tests of the Neuron were to demonstrate its low-observability, in connection with sea trials of the aircraft carrier Charles de Gualle. There would also be new stealth measurements within the government’s anechoic chamber at Solange.