(Reuters) –France’s Dassault Aviation stated Friday that it expects to report lower sales than 2021 this year, due to a sharp rise in its annual earnings. This was caused by increased deliveries of warplanes.

Rafale’s fighter jet manufacturer saw an increase in operating income of more than doubling to 527 million euro ($580.33million), up from 261 millions in 2020. Meanwhile, net sales rose to 7.23 billion euros (from 5.49 billion) the year before.

Eric Trappier, Chief Executive of Dassault said that 2021 was an “exceptional year” for Dassault’s order intake. However, the period had been marred by inflation and disruptions to supply chains.

Dassault reported that its order intake increased to 12.1 million euros in 2013. This includes previously reported orders of 51 Falcon business jets, 49 Rafales and 37 Rafales.

This jump was caused by an increased defense intake of 9.2 Billion Euros, up from 1.5 Billion in 2020.

Dassault reported already 30 Falcon delivery in 2021. This was down from 34 in 2020 and 25 Export Rafales.

It expects that the group will deliver 35 Falcon and 13 Rafale aircrafts by 2022.

Dassault noted that no agreement had yet been reached with Airbus on the next phase, 1B, of the Franco-German-Spanish fighter project known as FCAS.

Dassault stated in its results statement that the objective of the Dassault is to reach a decision this year on the next generation of manned and unmanned future fighting system.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Dassault stock’s value has nearly quadrupled since then. Investors bet on larger military budgets and Germany promised to spend more defense funds than the GDP of the country.

Dassault shares rose by around 2 percent in Paris’s early trading.

The dividend proposed by the group was 2.49 euro per share.

($1 = 0.9081 euros)