The Chinese Phalcon radar system (not) sold because of strong US pressure over Israel, to me, is the worst case scenario in the concept of any of these nations patnering with the Israelis on an expensive and critical/sensitive piece of aerospace technology such as a 5th Gen fighter…

Does any one think that the USD would sit back and let Israel help any opther country come up with an US-embargo-proof new stealth fighter line?

I don’t! Why do you think the Lavi program was killed off to start with?

Now let’s talk about the PAK-FA, how confortable would the Russians feel exporting their most advanced aircraft to a country with so deep and long established links to the US? I say this specific hypotesis is definitely a no-go!

The Brazilian MinDef has said over and over that it wishes a 5th Gen program to pick up after the F-X2… Let’s see what his successor has to say on this subject…

Comments?

Hammer

Chile has a decades old unflinching claim to a large slice of the Antarctic continent… Can such a ship be part of a ramp up of naval capability towards a future definitive aircraft-carrier capable force? Brazil boughttha ex-Foch on such a “temp-ship” premise…

Argentina amongst all of the sugested nations above at least has a clear and long standing military strategic requirement that might significantly benefit from its navy having a light carrier with fighters…:diablo:

I’m surprised that no one here even sugested Israel as a possible client! Imagine it soon heading to the Arabian Gulf for “humanitarian & oceanographic research support” :diablo::eek:

Also China, by being the worlds largest purchaser of old CV (HMAS Melbourne, Minsk) hulls, might certanly be interested in the “engine-less” Invincible hull to turn it into another “floating casino” like the ex-Variag! :p

And South Africa in some sorte of short term lease? Or else what about a Mediterranean Navy like the ones of Algeria or Libya? Could they be interested?

Coments?

Hammer

for what its worth, i have found your posts creditable and of value

Thank you, Jackjack!

Regards

Hammer

Hammer was often wrong 😉
Soap opera , yes ! … but this “news” is single source for now, i only take as credible news confirmed by several sources …Pending other credible news that will say otherwise 😉

So I`m “often” wrong?? Sorry, but would you please point out the severel times I said something here and something else happened? :dev2:

I apologise to the other readers but I feel that for some unknown reason Mr Danell has decided to single me out of the crowd and has turned me into a target for his innuendo remarks…

Regards

Hammer

Even if the question wasn’t directed at myself, let me tell you this: I disregard ANYTHING that comes from Folha, since the Brazil-France dela on submarines. During the process Folha (and O Globo by the way) would keep publishing articles contrary to the choice, with many fake facts even after several oficial public statements from Brazilian Navy dismissing every one of their arguments.
As for Mr. Galante, I take everything that comes from him with a grain of salt. It’s worthy to note that his modus operandi is pretty similar with what exhibited at the time of the submarine deal, as when his editorial line changed to an opposing position, after he was invited for a a visit to HDW in Germany.

Hi there, Noite,

Of course there was some onitial and mild general press reaction questioning the convenience and/or need for a multi-billion dollar order for the new subs. Their curiosity was probably spiked by the unforseen change of preference from the German U214 towards the French Scorpene derivative… Actually if you recall it was nothing too momentous…

I’m not here to defend the Folha newspaper by any means, but… Isn’t this just the main role one should expect from serious, reponsible journalism? To permanently cross check all the expensive investment programs decided upon by our elected officials to be payed for with our taxes? Don’t you agree?

But also do remember that once the Navy PR Dept came forward and answered all these very reasonable concerns promptly all objection simply vanished overnight even at the “conservative” Folha de São Paulo newspaper.

I myself was utterly surprised at the extremely short time it took Congress to analyse and authorize this deal (no more than 2 days!). Of course theres always the case of Janio de Freitas a rabid anti-Lula newspaper columnist who as expected raged on an on against any Lula decide move. No news over there, right? But even his rants were irrelevant in the end with the contract being signed anyway.

On the O Globo newspaper the whole sub deal coverage was done “en passant” by one reporter alone José Meireles Passos his initially assumed “reluctant” point of view on the deal probably being tinted mostly by his many years spent in Washington DC as the O Globo correspondent in the US more than anything else.

As a Brazilian you do know that when the local “big press” catches a whiff of “blood in the water” they’ll immediately behave like frenzied hungry sharks untill the whole issue is uprooted and exposed. Do you agree that nothing as such ever happened in the French Submarine deal?

Regards,

Hammer

P.S.: I do not agree with your take on the Blog Naval editors bias on this subject.

But that’s not the more important. In Brazil , if you want to mesure a so called “public support” , you must visit many blogs, forums and websites specialized in defence issues and not only the one which could flatter your own opinion.

I would certainly use the term “public support” very very carefully here in Brazil. This because the true average Brasilian taxpayer probably has ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE that there is an ongoing FAB program/intention to replace its front line fighter jets…

The frorum members represent a small but hard core group o peple that are able to (or at least try to) understand the many pros and cons of every possible purchase option being evaluated in this particular case.

These people tend to be seen by the bidding companies, the Air Force and government members in general as key opinionmakers, trensetters or jus as a strong possible leverage group able to affect other groups related or involved with this bid such as politicians and general press members.

About the main forums:

– Base Militar, on the contrary, is much more pro-Gripen or F18 (or even anti-Rafale)
http://www.alide.com.br/wforum/index.php

Do you really think so? From where I stand I see we have vocal members almost equaly cheering for each one of the three contenders in F-X2. And many of these forum members have switched (some morte than once) their alegiances in the last years…

[Quote]
About the main Blogs:
Choice of the subjects … phrases underlined … editors comments, its generally easy to feel their preference:

– Base Militar is, i would say mmm, pro US…
http://www.basemilitar.com.br/
[/Quote]

Here we must digress 😉 I myself write almost all of the BM articles and exclusive news items and I believe I’m really being able to maintain a very neutral stance. Please note that all the items published under the “Alide Noticias” section do not (at all) represent our opinion as they were written by other media entities.

Best Regards

Hammer

The Gripen availability at Red Flag info was from Força Aerea Brasileira (the FAB), the Brazilian Air Force. The first one to comment it was Mr. Juarez Castro, an ex-FAB maintenance officer. Gripen C/D offered a lower availability than our F-5EM Tiger II (we got around 70% availability). Since 1984 I covered military affairs for Brazilian newspapers an Janes Defence Weekly and I never saw an air force admits it failed.

I too heard from different sources inside the Brazilian Air Force that availability of the Gripen during Red Flag was a complete fiasco. These same sources blamed not the basic aircraft design or the manufacturer but the SweAF’s inability to adequately prepare for flight operations under a scorching 40°C air temperature and an over 50°C tarmac temperature at Nellis. Apparently the went to the States with less then the ideal number of replacemente parts for their “cold-blooded” nordic fighters… 😉

Regards,

Hammer

Remember me Eliane Cantanhede a famous unbiased journalist :

And yet i guess Fohla must be much more richer than BaseMilitar or Defesa@net … lol

Hi Danell,

I don’t think I really understood your answer on this issue here…

In your assessment do you believe Eliane Cantanhede (one of the top reporters inside the Folha newsroom) is, or is not, biased on the F-X2 subject??

Curiously enough she has been repetedly pointed out to me by people who know her as “a long time personal friend of Minister Jobim”. I do not know her personally so I can’t give you my personal opinion on this issue other than her texts seem to me to be pretty neutral…

Regards, Hammer