AFP, The French electronics group Thales is hoping for British help to win a contract to build France's second aircraft carrier.
The race is already heating up for the contract authorized in 2003-2008 defense legislation to build a “sister ship” for the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle.
But yet to be decided is whether it will be nuclear-powered or not, and in this second hypothesis, whether it should be purely French-built or a product of Franco-British cooperation.
The choice is not expected before next year, due to the time needed for the preparation of reports.
Meanwhile, Britain has set in motion its plans to launch two aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy in 2012-2015. It split the contract in July between Thales, the number two in the British defense sector, and sector leader BAE Systems.
Now Thales would like to continue this winning combination with its partner across the Channel, but this time for France.
The defense, aerospace and information technolgy group is facing stiff competition from supporters of a second nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, notably the state-owned Direction des Constructions Navales, which built the Charles de Gaulle.
DCN is proposing to build a ship on the same model, arguing it would be cheaper than developing a new ship.
DCN reportedly is offering to build the second ship for 1.83 billion euros (211.9 billion dollars), a sizeable discount of 1.2 billion euros from the first's price tag of 3.03 billion.
That solution “would allow for a homogenous nuclear-powered aircraft carrier fleet,” a DCN spokesman said.
Last week Thales jumped on the cost issue as press reports circulated that the British carrier project would overshoot its 2.8-billion-pound (4.0-billion-euro) budget, insisting it and BAE Systems could build the next French carrier for less than two billion euros.
Thales chairman Denis Ranque, responding to a journalist's question Thursday about the press reports, said: “We are determined to remain within that envelope of 2.8 billion pounds, or four billion euros for two carriers.”
For the next French carrier, “a cooperative solution with the British, for which we are fervent defenders, would cost less than two billion euros,” Ranque told the meeting of business journalists. “Since two are already being made for four billion euros, three can be made for less than six billion euros.”
Overshooting the British budget would have a clear impact on the cost of any Franco-British aircraft carrier for France.
The Thales chief dismissed arguments against a Franco-British solution, based on the differences in needs between the British aircraft carriers, built for short takeoffs, and the French, which would have to accommodate Dassault Aviation's Rafale fighter jet.
While acknowledging the British design would have to be adapted for French use, Ranque emphasized the ship could still be built for less than two billion euros.
“A catapult must be installed but even counting the cost of this modification, our project would come in under two billion euros,” he said.
