Paris: Shortly after India and the United States signed a an accord on secure military communications, which will possibly open the way of sales of US military equipment to India, on Thursday, France decided to cut its dependence on US components in its weapons systems to minimise Washington's ability to block its arms exports.
Without giving specific examples, French Defence Minister Florence Parly said France needed to "gradually wean ourselves off our reliance on a certain number of American parts."
Washington has this year blocked the sale to Egypt of French-made SCALP cruise missiles, which contain a US part.
"We have had trade difficulties linked to the prospects for exports. And we know that these difficulties are linked to strategic questions and often to problems of commercial rivalry," Parly told a small group of journalists.
She was quizzed on the subject in July by parliament's defence committee.
Asked at that time by one lawmaker about the blocked SCALP sale, Parly said: "We are at the mercy of the Americans."
Parly said Washington's actions underlined the need to minimise dependence on US parts in the Future Combat Air System (SCAF) project - Europe's next-generation combat jet which France and Germany are taking the lead in developing.
France's Dassault Aviation and European planemaker Airbus have signed a deal to work together on the jet, which is expected to be at the centre of a broader weapons system capable of commanding a squadron of drones.
France's air force uses Reaper drones, built by US firm General Atomics, in its counter-terrorism operations against Islamist militants. Parly said France had needed US congressional approval to arm the drones.
"Is that satisfactory? No. But we don't have any choice," she said.
