French aerospace and defence group Dassault Aviation has issued a statement insisting it 'freely' chose India's Reliance Group, run by a businessman close to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as its local industrial partner as part of the sale to New Delhi of 36 Rafale fighter planes, following the revelation by Mediapart of a document in which one of its senior executives is cited as saying the choice of Reliance was 'imperative and obligatory' in securing the contract.
Control of Arianespace, the pan-European company that provides commercial launch services for spacecraft, is to be handed over to a joint venture between Airbus Group and French aero-engine maker Safran. The privatisation, via a transfer of majority shares in the company held until now by the French national space studies agency, the CNES, is expected to be formally detailed at the Paris Air Show which opens on Monday. The move has accentuated mounting tensions between staff and management of the company, amid fears of job cuts and the end of a 35-year collective public adventure that spearheaded the European space industry. Martine Orange reports on the deep malaise surrounding a controversial privatisation to be underwritten by taxpayers.
