UAE Rescinds Commitment to Buy 12 French Airbus Choppers

The UAE has reneged on a nearly €800 million deal to purchase twelve H225 Caracal multirole helicopters from French aircraft manufacturer Airbus, a government official reportedly told Breaking Defense.
“We found it difficult to continue the contract due to the high lifecycle cost, the limitations in adapting to modular designs of future mission requirements, and the complex technical proposal,” said Muammar Abdulla Abushehab–Defense and Security Industry Affairs sector chief for the Tawazun Council–in a May 8 interview.
The Tawazun Council is the UAE’s independent government entity that cooperates with the defense ministry and security agencies in the UAE, and is assigned to the sector’s research and development and technological innovation side, among other roles.
Abushehab declared that the change, of course, was not a political choice but was due to financial and technical constraints.
UAE had ordered the helicopters–valued at approximately €750-€800 million in Dec. 2021–during the French president’s visit.
The H225M is the military edition of the H225 and can be manufactured with a variety of weaponry, ranging from machine guns to rockets to anti-ship missiles.
France has been relying on the UAE as a stand-in client to replace other countries that had traditionally proven to be loyal customers of its military industry–but were lost because of its recent political agenda–particularly since the assumption of power by Emmanuel Macron.