December 20,2008: The French Air Force and Navy has hired Dassault Aviation to provide most of the maintenance for its Rafale fighters (which Dassault manufactures). The ten year contract obliges to Dassault to be paid on the basis of flight hours. This contract does not cover the engine, radar, countermeasures or weapons systems. Those items may be covered by a separate contract. This sort of maintenance deal is becoming more popular, even though it can put more civilians in combat zones. This itself is not unusual, as manufacturer engineers have long served in combat zones to assist in the repair and maintenance of military equipment. Better predictive statistics techniques enable the maintenance suppliers to carry out these contracts profitably and reliably.