Most modern domestically developed Chinese platforms have not yet been battle-tested, said Eric Zhu, a defence analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “So having the combat record is a plus for their export potential.”
Archiv: Dassault Group (consortium) / sub-corporations
Dassault Aviation Stocks Fluctuated After Pakistan Claimed to Shot Down Rafale Jets
While Indian sources have disputed some aspects of these claims, the market response was immediately felt. Dassault Aviation, which had seen a rise in stock value due to strong Rafale sales, witnessed a minor drop. On the other hand, reports of shares of Chengdu Aircraft Corporation, the producer of Pakistan’s J-10C and JF-17 jets, surged.
French official says Pakistan downed Rafale jet as officials examine possible further losses
(May 7, 2025)
A high-ranking French intelligence official told CNN today that one Rafale fighter jet operated by the Indian Air Force was downed by Pakistan, in what would mark the first time that one of the sophisticated French-made warplanes has been lost in combat.
Pakistan claimed earlier today to have shot down five Indian Air Force jets in retaliation for Indian strikes, including three Rafales. Indian officials are yet to respond to the claim.
Surveillance made in France
The French SME had a major advantage: since 2012 it had had a commercial arm based in the Emirates, Advanced Middle East Systems. “This creation was done with the greatest transparency of information with the French services”, Nexa Technologies still asserts. On 24 March 2014, its directors, Stéphane Salies and Olivier Bohbot, won an €11.4 million contract to install its flagship software, Cerebro, in Cairo. According to a confidential document obtained by Disclose, Cerebro is said to be able to “analyse data to understand the relationships and behaviour of suspects, going back in time to find relevant information in billions of recorded conversations”. The contract was called “Toblerone”, after the Swiss chocolate in the shape of a pyramid.
In the wake of this, Stéphane Salies, Nexa‘s CEO, advised the Emiratis to bring in Ercom-Suneris. Jackpot. In the summer of 2014, Pierre-Mayeul Badaire, Ercom‘s CEO, signed a contract for nearly €15 million to spy on phones up and down the Nile. The Egyptian military was primarily interested in one feature: geolocating their targets in real time using their Cortex Vortex software. “It‘s like a spy movie”, explains a former Ercom engineer, speaking on condition of anonymity. “You can geolocate a person by triangulating the position of the base stations which their phone is connected to, even without them making any calls”.