if I’m not mistaken, the SH was already not competing during previous competition

Boeing took the SH from the 2008 competition, they´ve already stated that this time they are going to compete.

Not so sure. Context is very different, Ueli Maurer isn’t there anymore etc.

Its a bit irrelevant the name of the Swiss Defense Minister.

Gripen MS21 was still rated inferior, so yes, if Hallow is insinuating that the worst aircraft won, he would be correct. “Worst” being relative to the two other highly capable competitors, but little doubt it was the most affordable.

Bingo.
The Swiss MOD will choose the cheapest aircraft that fulfills its requirements, anything else and they are courting losing their entire fast jet fleet.

aka Haters gotta Hate

No hate on my part

Given that the F-35 is cheaper than the Rafale & Eurofighter, close to the Gripen & Super Hornet, and requires less operational support than any of them, I don’t see how the F-35 is at any disadvantage.

That is called religious faith

As to replacing some Typhoons with F35, it will be the easiest way I suppose, but aren’t the older Typhoons going to be A2A specialists? Is the F35 a genuine QRA bird?

I suspect that the “pre 2015 SDSR” plan of five Typhoons sqns and four JCA´s sqn´s is still pretty much in the RAF´s (and MOD) mind (not too long ago the RAF boss was claiming for another fast jet sqn, for a grand total of ten front line units, economy almost certainly killed that), and (perhaps) what they are thinking is the exact same thing with a bit of moving things “to the right”.
Replacing the older Typhoons with JCA´s would simply throw the QRA job to the remaining Phoon units.
I also think that the RAF is maintaning open every possibility for the replacement of T2/3 Phoon´s, from more Dave´s, to more Dave´s coupled with an unmanned UCAV (“Son of FCAS”), to a new manned platform made together with the Japanese, or the US, or the French/Germans/Martians, everything is open.

Cheers

Surprise, surprise – the UK might not buy all 138 F35s it has committed to:

Not a great surprise at all. When the RAF shelved the plans to early retire the Typhoons T1´s then the RAF/RN were firmly stuck with a 7 Sqn Phoon fleet plus two to three JCA Sqn´s for the next decade and a half to two decades.

Does that just act to reduce the project bill for the MOD even if the first 48 are set in stone and/or does it signal that the other projects like FCAS, and son of Typhoon need some of those resources?

It probably means two things, that a) there was no urgent requirement to actually acquire all those 138 airframes, the only way for the MOD to justify the acquisition of so many Dave´s would be to use them to replace a great big chunk of the Typhoon fleet, something that will only ocur twenty years from now and b) the MOD´s budget its not exactly on a healthy foot.

Just for giggles care to prove that?

Read the post above.

4 times as much? I doubt it. And I won’t even delve into the kickback aspect of things.

Why did you choose the number “4”? Because there were four Eurofighter partners?
Did Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain together ever managed to export more combat aircrafts since the sixties than France? No?
Here you go.

Oh boy a national program would send so much money to MDDouglas or GE.

A German fighter jet program right after the Berlim wall went to pieces and bits?
In 1989 the Soviet Union threat disapeared and Germany was facing a massive bill in order to get the old RDA to Western living standards, there was no money for a German fighter project or anything remotely looking military R&D, the alternatives were a scaled down European program (what they´ve choose) or a MCDouglas/General Dynamics aircraft.
The other three, Great Britain was the leading partner in the Eurofighter program and with “peace dividend” and all, was perfectly happy to go along, Italy toyed with the idea of a very light fighter equiped with a single RB199, did the business case (they had a very recent benchmark, the AMX while being a very light aircraft ended up in the same price tag of a Viper, lack of production scale, and it didnt get one single export) and decided to keep with the EF program, the Spanish didnt the have the budget, or the technology, to go for it alone, so it was either American, or “European”, or “French”, Good old Helmut Kohl was decisive on that.

A national program maintains even more in house design capabilitty. What’s your damn point? Seriously?

The point is quite obvious, at today´s level of defense spending any Western European country will have problems in funding an entirely national FCAS program while maintaining its other compromises/programs.
France, Great Britain and (specially) Germany have the money to do it, but either they cut another military programs, or they raise the defense budget.
The only ones who could raise the defence budget confortably are the Germans, by historical reasons (and a lack of a perceived threat) they are not particulary confortable in doing so, wich is understandable. France and Great Britain would have to cut social programs to raise the defense budget.
The other two alternatives are working together or buy American.

This drivel proves that you haven’t even read my other posts on the subject. Being broke enough to not be able to defend yourself means you suck at governing, means you need to go and be replaced by someone who actually knows how to do stuff. It NEVER means that you have to buy your stuff with major enemies (UK).

“Buy your stuff with major enemies (Uk)”?! Did i understood correctly? The UK is a “major enemy”?!
Actually i have read your posts, you were the chap who wrote that today´s Russia was a “de facto” ally of France in its war against islamic terrorism… You have a very interesting definition of allies and enemies.
Independently of that, the thing is, the costs of military R&D and Hardware have had a geometrical inflation for the best part of a century, developing one single combat air system and acquiring it its a lot more expensive today than lets say, to develop a Dewoitine 520 in 1939.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/weapons/news/a25678/the-cost-of-new-fighters-keeps-going-up-up-up/

Europe is getting hit by Norman Augustine law:
“In the year 2054, the entire defense budget will purchase just one aircraft. This aircraft will have to be shared by the Air Force and Navy 3-1/2 days each per week except for leap year, when it will be made available to the Marines for the extra day.”

And without 50 Warsaw Pact divisions at its doors, neither the Germans, the British and the French (well mostly, i know your opinion) are much predisposed to increase much its defense budgets. And its not that the leaderships of the Western Europeans have failed them, at least by comparison with the rest of the world. Lets be honest, sitting in Western Europe its a pretty confortable place to be, there´s not one single country that surrounds Europe that has anything close to our living standards, we have to look across the Atlantic pond to Canada or the US to see something similar to our societies. Even i, a Portuguese, living in one of the poorest countries in Western Europe can write such a thing (when i was borne i couldnt…).

So here we are, three options, increase the defense budget, cooperate with the rest of Europe (at least they are, more or less, of the same size, and have, more or less, the same needs) or buy American.
Mind you, if i was in the German MOD i would be yelling my lungs out for a (quite decent) funds raise.

Cheers