Yeah, that other Italy.

France made the right move taking the lead of the program…At least for its own interest.

Including Italy or/and the UK in the program would give each country a very small indutrial share…At least too small for France who like the UK wants to maintain the full spectrum of know-how to build a high end fighter jet.

Germany could be the right partner if the political will does not errode over time. Financially in good shape and not willing to take the lead.

I think that when France says that others (UK/Italy/Sweeden) are free to join provided the Franco/German leadership remains unchanged they know that the UK and to a lesser extent Italy would never accept this condition. They surely want to play a bigger role.

Sure they must be quite angry at the situation as France & Germany moved quickly to be in the stonger position.

UK/Italy for Tempest seems a good ticket for them to maintain a good industrial basis…Impossible with the Franco German program. So instead of having 3 different program in Europe we would have only 2…Already a progress !

Imho the title is a bit misleading. It’s basically a French programme with backing from the current German government. The specs are French, the largest part of the workshare will be French. Maybe it will succeed if the French taxpayer is willing to shoulder the lion’s share of the development costs.
But that’s not the only issue. The other obstacle are export policies. France is more or less willing to sell to everyone able to pay while every large political party in Germany prefers a holier-than-thou approach to arms exports.
“Contributing” to Gripen NG would have been a better idea considering fiscal realities and military ambitions over here in Germany.

Germany officially knocks F-35 out of competition to replace Tornado

The madness continues. The only reason for an American type is the nuclear sharing. The SH is not cleared for the B-61-12, nor is it planned for integration. A legacy aircraft flying hundreds of kilometres over Russian territory to deliver gravity bomb. What a great idea.

^ Are there any political consequences of this for the defense minister and other high ranking political and permanent defense ministry officials?

Nope. I mean she did a stellar job. Thanks to her efforts there are new uniforms for pregnant female soldiers, new kindergardens and the MoD paid 300 million Euro in advance to consulting companies (just in case they need consulting at some point). Meanwhile they closed the Marinearsenal Kiel and the Luftwaffendepot in Erding to save costs. Unfortunately logistics are now a mess. Which nobody could have guessed, honestly.

The Saab 37 family imho isn’t really well suited to work outside the Swedish context. Attack versions are very limited in weapon options. The JA 37 fighter version is ok as a fighter but the F-15 is better.
Mirage 2000C is comparable to F-15C in versatility but again the F-15C is better. Maybe in a hi-lo-mix, but then F-15/F-16 makes more sense.

Here I have to disagree. It is imho the perfect choice for a small to medium sized country without any aspirations for expeditionary warfare. Just remember the buzzwords from the timefrime: BVR, look down/shoot down radar, digital flight control. Yep, ticks all the boxes except air2air refuelling, which is a non issue for a defensive doctrine. By 1985 it even had a fully operational data link.

Things look better for India, don’t they ? The Teja gains traction and a foreign light weight fighter looks more and more unlikely. Quite a few of the current medium fighters/bombers are likely replaced by MCA or existing types. FGFA may take some time but in the end it’s probably ready when the MKI replacement is due.

And admiral Nolting can be quoted with “the next jet for the Marineflieger has to be carrier capable”. Nolting is gone (and fast jets for the Marine, too).

1. Viggen
2. Mirage F1
3. if all else fails a combination of MiG-23ML and BN.