Nothing really new. Same flaws emerged from a previous NATO assesment of February which was summarized by the NY Times on the 14th of April: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/world/africa/nato-sees-flaws-in-air-campaign-against-qaddafi.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&ref=world&src=mv

From page 2 of the NY Times article about the air campaign over Libya:

Information about targets in Libya was drawn largely from the databases of individual nations, and much of this could not be shared rapidly among NATO members and partners because of “classification or procedural reasons,” the report found.

“Nations did not effectively and efficiently share national intelligence and targeting information among allies and with partners,” the report said. “The inability to share information presented a major hindrance to nations deciding if a target could be engaged” based on information from another country.

The NATO command in Italy suffered from serious shortages of political and legal advisers, intelligence analysts, logistics planners, linguists, and specialists in selecting targets, called targeteers. “Many targeteers had not been adequately trained on deliberate, dynamic or time-sensitive targeting,” the report said, adding that many specialists were assigned to the command for only a few weeks.

I am afraid that we all missed to read the full article linked on the very first post in this thread: http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/uae-and-serbia-re-engage-after-strained-relations

ABU DHABI // After four years of strained diplomatic relations, the UAE and Serbia have re-engaged.

Last week, a Serbian delegation headed by Aleksandar Vucic, Serbia’s first deputy prime minister and minister of defence, visited the UAE to discuss agreements on diplomatic and economic relations, as well as defence cooperation.

The UAE and Serbia agreed to establish full diplomatic relations in 2007, but the deal was never signed. The Serbs pulled out when the UAE recognised Kosovo as an independent state in 2008.

Since then, only air and trade-route agreements have been signed between the two governments, despite approximately 15,000 Serbians living in the UAE.

So it seems that there is something more important for Serbia then fundings for the development of a hypothetical advanced trainer: to try to restablish basic diplomatic relations with UAE.

Diplomatic relations are still at a stall since the Kosovo crisis:

The United Arab Emirates recognized Kosovo on 14 October 2008. Kosovo plans to open an embassy in the UAE. After the Serbian government launched a major offensive against the ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo in 1998, the UAE called for international intervention and commenced a major program of humanitarian relief through its Red Crescent Society. In 1999, the UAE was among the first non-NATO states to voice support for NATO’s bombing campaign. During the UN administration period, the UAE maintained almost 1,500 peacekeeping and special operations troops in Kosovo. The UAE was the only Muslim state to offer to participate in the Kosovo Force and its commitment was the first operational deployment of UAE forces outside the Middle East region. As of October 2008, these forces remained in Kosovo and between 1998 and 2008, the aid given to Kosovo by the UAE’s Red Crescent Authority alone cost Dh125 million, the biggest international humanitarian mission in the UAE’s history.

Source (I know many don’t like the source but, well in this case provide evidence of relations not at strain): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_the_United_Arab_Emirates

Now, the military collaboration agreement was just an assumptive matter of discussion to try to re-estabilish a minimum of diplomatic (and trade) relationship between the two countries. Without such relationship even the trade of basic goods could suffer, favouring other countries.

Again, I think we are discussing on a project which has not a real base.

UAE is already buying M-346 why would they want another supersonic LIFT type? If they wanted production experience they could probably negotiate another batch of M-346 in CKD form.

Hi, first post for me on this forum.
Just for sake of clearness, the deal with UAE is currently stalled over specifications.
It seems that for the light attack roles the UAE asked the implemention of a suitable radar, more substantial e.g. of the simulated radar for Israel’s M-346 fleet.

There are rumors here in Italy that Alenia already started in flight testing of the M-346 equipped with some sort of Grifo family radar, to secure the deal.

The contract signed in 2010 already mentioned final assembly of the a/c in UAE. See: http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/uae-chooses-m-346-as-advanced-lead-in-fighter-trainer-323077/

The announcement also unveiled the creation of a joint venture in the UAE between Alenia Aermacchi and Mubadala Development to establish a final assembly line for the M-346. The agreement also foresees “the manufacturing of aerostructures in composite materials for the civil sector in Abu Dhabi,” says Finmeccanica chief executive Pier Francesco Guarguaglini.

Anyway here it is deemed quite undoubted that UAE will eventually chose between the M-346 and the T-50, with little or no space for other competitors.

Maybe UAE is trying to obtain better terms for the deal, but in any case Alena has been open to further involvement of foreign industries in its projects in order to secure deals.