France Closer To Buying U.S. Javelin Missile
PARIS - A delegation of officials from the Direction Générale pour l'Armement (DGA) procurement office and the French Army is due to visit U.S. industrial sites as soon as advanced negotiations get under way for a prospective purchase of the Javelin anti-tank missile, defense sources said.
The visit during the week of Oct. 19 is intended to finalize arrangements for a buy of the infantry weapon under U.S. Foreign Military Sale rules, one defense source said. A Lockheed Martin-Raytheon joint venture builds the Javelin.
The delegation will go to the United States to negotiate the purchase and also will visit the joint venture's facilities at Tucson, Ariz., where the command launch unit is built, and Troy, Ala., where the missile undergoes integration, a second source said.
France looks set for a single short-term purchase of some 300 missiles and 50 to 60 launchers, with an estimated budget of 70 million euros ($103 million) for an urgent operational requirement for Afghanistan.
There are a range of procurement options, and the negotiations are intended to help determine the number of missiles and firing posts. The talks also will pin down the cost of spare parts, training rounds, training courses, delivery dates, documentation and other details.
Executives at Rafael have resigned themselves to the fact that France is about to chose Javelin over Spike, even though French Army evaluators preferred the Israeli weapon.
"It seems they have made up their minds for Javelin," a Rafael executive said. "They will have to negotiate and they will pay for it, since there's no competition." The executive added, "Spike offers faster delivery and a competitive budgetary offer."
The DGA declined to comment.
But until a Javelin contract is signed, executives insist on caution.
The U.S. government also holds out the prospect of a broader industrial cooperation.
"The real issue is cooperation in the future," the first source said. "Javelin could be the template for other programs in the future that could involve an exchange of real technology."
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