, France has sold roughly as much in defense equipment so far this year as it did in all of 2005, boosted by sales of helicopters made by European aerospace firm EADS, French officials said on Oct. 25.
Presenting a report on defense exports in 2005, which said orders totaled 4.1 billion euros ($5.2 billion) that year, defence ministry spokesman Jean-Francois Bureau said orders had reached roughly the same level in 2006 so far.
“Today we are at a level equivalent to that seen last year,” Bureau told a news conference, adding: “At the current time, we have an order intake level which is to the order of 4 billion euros … We have reached that threshold.”
The announcement struck a positive note at a time France, one of the world
