“They were in the buffer zone,” said MacKay, stressing that although the planes did not enter Canada’s sovereign airspace, the bombers did come inside the 300 nautical mile zone that Canada claims.

ehh — what kind of claims would that be..?

On top of offset issues versus heavy weights, Boeing/US could just say at the last moment to SAAB : we are not selling you the F414 anymore…Given the money at stake I would not be surprised.

Boeing is not selling the F414 — GE does.

The US would of course prefer SH or F-16 win, but they would also prefer Gripen to win instead of Typhoon, Rafale or Mig-35….

I am not so sure about Typhoon, unless they can reduce the price quite a lot. And how will they cut operating costs? And isn’t there too much overlap with the SU-30?

I think cost and politics will be important.

Anyway it will be very interesting to see the (new) short list, hopefully by end of this week!

With that kind of emphasis on A2A, F-16/18 probably didn’t.

Emphasis on A2A? Do you have a source for that?

To buy rafale or eurofighter and than then get strategic gains as well within 11 bn USD seems hard. Mig and F-16 and maybe SH seems easier, and ofcourse Gripen.

Therefor my shortlist goes to F-16, MIG and Gripen.

After shortlist anything could happen, but i doubt US regulations will be altered..but as you say, this can happen.
Do you really think the Uran enrichment must be a only US deal? or just a wishlist directed to all contenders?

Dont forget UK supports gripen as well (second to EF). Maybe this can change the bleaker situation for Gripen. wouldnt you say?
Earlier LCC was a keyfactor, and this will probably make the MIG-35 stand out. Althou the Mig-29 ops present in IAF today will probably help.

Some rumors say F-16 was one of the fighters that did not succeed at Leh; besides Pakistan got F-16 (althouth I am not sure how strong that argument is); if we also assume that the Leh F-16 rumor is incorrect then yes F-16 could make it to the short list. I am less sure about Mig.

I suspect the UK will offer full support for Gripen only if the Typhoon does not make it to the short list — but in any case I think India will use this deal and the poor finance situation in the US to pressure the US to change US regulations affecting India. IF the US fails in doing so, then they will look elsewhere, and then Gripen may have a good chance since the “strategic gain” from the others are not that much better than what you get from Sweden+UK…

MMRCA Flight Eval Report Coming This Week

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/awx/2010/07/26/awx_07_26_2010_p0-243561.xml&headline=MMRCA%20Flight%20Evaluation%20Report%20This%20Week

So, who will make it to the shortlist? My guess is: SH, Rafale, Typhoon, and Gripen NG.

Talking about F16, word is in france that M2000 EW suite is also very good against belguim F16s

Interesting..

Perhaps needless to say, but the EW suite of Gripen NG will be a significant improvement over the current EWS39 🙂

The current system: http://products.saabgroup.com/pdbwebnew/PDF/productpage_id700_lan1.pdf

One important component will be the active towed decoy:

The Gripen NG will have a fiber-optic towed decoy as a baseline subsystem to help defeat radar-guided missile threats. A towed decoy is only an option on the current model, but the supplier choice is pending for the subsystem on the NG, says Eddy de la Motte, a Gripen International program official.

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp;AVNOWJSESSIONID=MIgZ92CIqhJNtfcv2oZGMxLxyWTjqOjPAWesm143bRJ5iYEwYnM5!756790295?specialEvent=farn10&id=news%2Fawx%2F2010%2F07%2F21%2Fawx_07_21_2010_p0-242689.xml&headline=Gripen+NG+Decoy+Decision+Nears

That’s an expensive Rosé ! Rosé is good and refreshing and is drunk more easily with hot temperatures (it’s a synonym of holidays and barbecue). But it is not consider as noble as red or white wine whose prices can be “extraordinary” (several thousands euros). 40 euros for a rosé is probably close to the most expensive you can get in france. Don’t know for Norway..;)

sorry for the off topic !

Indeed that was my point. French wines are expensive in Norway, even the rosé’s. Wines from South America and Australia are in general more affordable. In part due to the quality but also (I suspect) due to the “brand” effect — it’s French so it must be more expensive!

Also one could add that in general wines are expensive in Norway. Furthermore, this was indeed an expensive rosé, even for Norway.

However it was very good 🙂