France's Safran says defence investment depends on orders

PARIS (Reuters) -The head of Safran said on Monday the French aerospace and defence group was ready to invest in increased production of defence equipment as long as the mounting appetite for increased European defence capacity led to tangible orders.

"We are ready to invest," CEO Olivier Andries told a French Senate committee hearing. He said it was important to have visibility over the scale of orders and defence budgets.

Andries is the latest defence executive to call for firm orders as European nations respond to the ongoing war in Ukraine and the prospect of reduced U.S. security guarantees for Europe.

Andries warned against plans to limit French public support for advanced research, saying it could force Safran to choose how to spread attention between its core engine business and other high-skilled activities, such as landing gears and nacelles.

The French CEO pledged, however, to maintain recruitment of apprentices in the face of pressure on hiring schemes and said he was "very worried" about a slide in France's emphasis on mathematics in its education system as the country seeks to maintain an edge in advanced technologies.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Tomasz Janowski)