The French defence industry has good reason to be optimistic about its future. All cylinders in the engine appear to be firing with the exception of the land armaments branch, but even there the picture looks less bleak than only a year ago. However, the industry will need to keep its nerve in the coming months amid signs that the government may not be able to fulfil its pledge to raise spending on defence regularly between no wand 2008. The industry achieved sales of roughly EUR14 billion ($16.8 billion) in 2003, putting France second behind the UK as Europe's busiest armaments builder. Exports amounted to EUR4.1 billion. The figures are not impressive when laid against the industry's revenue and overseas sales at some points in the 1990s; in 1998, for instance, French suppliers generated revenues of EUR16.5 billion and sold EUR7.7 billion worth of their goods abroad.
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