“European preference must be applied in our launching policy. It is key to our strategic autonomy for access to space”

regulations with the United States?

Discussions are underway with the Americans and the Germans at the highest political level.

France has taken the bull by the horns in terms of the ITAR regulation...

We are extremely vigilant on this point. We want to have strategic autonomy in terms of equipment and depend as little as possible on foreign authorisations for export. This is what we are doing with the new generation MBDA MICA missile programme which will not include any ITAR components.

Can the European fund help you by encouraging the creation of a strategic components sector?

We are promoting the development of European sectors in order to be as independent as possible in our exports. It will take time, but we have already launched work supported by Brussels as part of the preparatory action for defence research, which is one of the preliminary actions of the European Defence Fund.

With regard to Germany, should we be going “German free” as some industrialists think?

We need to cooperate with Germany. It is essential if we want to have European cooperation with regard to arms. We need to reach an agreement on the export conditions which satisfies both sides. This is the aim of the ongoing discussions led at the highest level by the President and France’s General Secretariat for National Defence (SGDN), with the very strong personal involvement of the Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly. The DGA is lending its technical expertise to these discussions.

For Thales and Naval Group in the naval sector and for Thales and Airbus in the aerospace sector, should the State manage competition in order to clarify it for industrialists and foreign customers?

We encourage an alignment of the French industrial camp for export offers. However, we should not be dogmatic. We need to examine each case, prospect by prospect. In some cases, when customers issue calls for tender, it can happen that they vary widely. In this case, let the best one win.

Is the DGA doing well?

The DGA is doing well if we review our missions: equipping our armed forces with the increased credits of the military planning law, innovation, European cooperation and export. This is all based on our engineering, expertise and testing capabilities, which make us a competent contracting authority able to discuss with industrialists and negotiate contracts in the best interests of the public authorities and the armed forces. It is crucial.