France seals deal for 14 Soyuz carrier rockets

France has ordered 14 Soyuz carrier rockets from Russia costing some $1 billion.

Speaking at the Russian-French business forum in Paris on Tuesday, French satellite launch firm Arianespace's CEO, Jean-Yves Le Gall, confirmed rumors of that France would be purchasing Soyuz booster rockets from Russia.

"We have ordered 14 Soyuzes from the Russian Federation; the contract's cost is about $1 billion. These are ambitious plans," Le Gall said.

The Russian-French cooperation deal calls for the construction of state-of-the-art booster rockets and a launch system for Soyuz rockets at the Kourou space center in French Guiana.

Meanwhile, according to officials from Russia and France's space agencies, the equipment is 90 percent ready with the Russian side — Roskosmos — saying that it is ready to perform the first launch of the Russian rockets from the northeast of South America during the second half of 2010.

NASA officials have described the Soyuz-TC as the best booster in the world.

Earlier on Monday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Russia and France had begun "exclusive talks" on the purchase of four French Mistral-class amphibious-assault ships, two of which could be built in Russia.

The deal for the assault ships is believed to be the largest arms sale from a NATO member to Russia so far.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=120479§ionid=351020603.