I think all of the Pakistani and Indian nationalist rah rah stuff is mostly behind that perception.

those older block F-16s you insist lack alot of capabilities that are offered by the newer ones quite obviously. Further more who’s going to offer the older block F-16s? Most of them are already worn out.

Have you ever wondered where Super Mysteres, F-86s, Hawker Hunters, A-4 Skyhawks, old Israeli Nesshers, Mirage 3s and the like went when they left frontline service in 1st world air forces?

Yes, they went to the third world. True, F-16s are aging out of service in the USAF, but that is also exactly why they are becoming affordable for serice in other countries.

I don’t think people realize how large $80 billion dollars is. It’s a lot of money considering what the US has gotten out of Iraq so far. Now congress is going to chuck in another $20 billion.

$80 billion is about 4,000,000 Toyota Camry’s or Honda Accords. That’s like giving every man, woman, AND child that lives in Atlanta, Georgia a new car.

In 2002, there were about 16 million new cars sold in the US, which means that kicking Iraq’s ass cost the US about 25% of the US auto market.

It’s mindboggling to think of how many jobs that might have created or how many college students that could have supported, or how many senior citizens it could have helped with Social security.

Wasn’t there a news article recently about GE getting a contract for a dozen F404s from India for use on the LCA?

Yeah, I thought so. Here it is:

http://www.geae.com/aboutgeae/presscenter/military/military_2004205a.html

I really should go back to posting news links on my site, but it’s too much work…

unfortunately I feel that the market for both the Rafale and Typhoon will be quite limited.

I would tend to agree. Even the “home markets” for both Eurofighter and Rafale are far from guaranteed. There have been rumblings about Britain and Italy taking fewer EF2000s. I think that France has got to be at least considering taking fewer Rafales.

Europe has so many concerns about future social program spending that governments will all be closely focused on budget spending. I’m afraid that defense spending will be one of the primary targets for budget cutting.

Originally posted by WACHENR0DER
I was always fond of the Greek Air Force, purchasing basically the same type of aircraft from two different souces in order to diversify their equipment (Mirage F1 and F-4, M2k and F-16, etc). Not to mention their snazzy camouflage 😎

To me that’s a sign of a screwed up planning and logisitics.

Originally posted by thekyle
It doesn’t matter if they have nothing to shoot at.
The point is being one (or more) step ahead of Israel’s enemies.
That has always been the line – deterring.

Hmmm. What about the balistic missile problem? You’d continue to put money into new AAMs while your enemies like Iran seek nuclear weapons and balistic missiles, instead of investing more in the Arrow 2 anti balistic missile systems?

Defence money, even for the US is always limited. There is always a tradeoff somewhere. I don’t believe that new AAMs are the best use of Israeli resources.