France has established a new six-year defense plan for 2003-2008. This freezes defense spending at $11.4 billion per year, but optimistically assumes that actual procurement spending will steadily increase due to increased efficiency and savings from cross-border defense cooperation. During this six-year period, the Air Force will buy only 57 Rafale fighters and the Navy will get only 19 Rafale-M carrier-based fighters.--Stephen V Cole
