Spitfire9Chile could buy used f-16s for chips as they are already a current user of the f-16, with all the supporting infrastructures already in place. For a new user such as Bulgaria, look at how much Romania is spending to get ita first dozen f-16s.
How much are Romania spending?
Spitfire9The deal is only done when there is ink on the dotted lines of the contract. Nonetheless good news and at least some progress on that front.
Yes. Kuwait has allocated initial funds, as I understand things. What’s this that I read about BaE Systems offering a lower price for the long-term support package? I see the problem for Finmeccanica if they have no experience of this: how do they know what it will cost them (Finmeccanica)? I can see they don’t want to underprice then discover they make little profit on the support side – or worse still. lose money – but if they’ve massively overpriced their support package (IF they have), is this deal heading down the road Rafale went down in Morocco?
Spitfire9From the linked article: ‘The defence minister said that $44.4mn are foreseen for the first installment for the multi-purpose aircraft…’
Spitfire9Lawmakers: Give US Navy More F/A-18s
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/2016/03/01/lawmakers-give-navy-more-f-18s/81161908/
Spitfire9The problem with Typhoons Tr1,
– those dont offer all the capabilties we want
I think armed forces get too concerned about something meeting their requirement regardless of cost. If aircraft A falls short of requirement by 1% but costs 25% less than aircraft B which meets requirement, it would be sensible to buy aircraft A. On big ticket items like MMRCA that could mean the difference between having 3/4 squadrons of aircraft A + a few $ billion spare (fancy another carrier, perhaps?) or 3/4 squadrons of aircraft B.
Whatever, in this instance there is a fit between customer and supplier needs: India is in a fix with a large number of fighters needing retirement; there are surplus Typhoons in the inventory of the Eurofighter partner countries, probably available for very little; in the next few years there will be tools and equipment for Typhoon assembly available (no point in keeping an assembly line open if you have no orders to assemble). Typhoon could perhaps become the medium weight Su30MKI and in the same way as more Su30MKI can be ordered when something else is delayed, more Typhoon could be ordered if for example AMCA is delayed.
Spitfire9(EDITOR’S NOTE: The first thing to note about the above award is that it is not a “fixed-price contract”, as the Pentagon had promised, but a “cost-plus incentive fee” contract which guarantees that Lockheed will be paid for its costs, plus a pre-determined profit margin.
This is especially surprising as this contract covers remedial work on F-35s that have already been delivered, and on which Lockheed has already been paid for its costs plus an incentive fee, even though the aircraft did not conform to contract specifications.
In other words, Lockheed profits twice: once when delivering defective aircraft, and a second time when carrying out remedial work, as above.
Def-Aero editorials… This guy need some serious holidays. And I have been saying that for a while.
…
Concurrency was defined as part of the program from the beginning. So, either our Def-Apéro guy is exhausted beyond use (that’s our time that he is wasting, let’s remind him). Either he is a pitiful lier that waste only the reputation of this serious publication for a doubtful purpose.
I take it that you are saying LM is installing stuff (that will need to replaced) as per contract whereas the editor is saying LM is not installing stuff (that will need to replaced) as per contract?
What surprises me is that what was announced as a fixed price contract appears to have become a cost plus contract. Cost plus contracts by nature tend to see the cost go plus (since the higher the cost, the higher the profit for the contractor).
Spitfire9Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $769,511,730 modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-incentive-fee, fixed-price-incentive-firm contract
Spitfire9A Norwegian fighter pilot has published a soft rebuttal to a damaging critique leaked last summer about the Lockheed Martin F-35A’s dogfighting prowess, contradicting many of the critical points made in the scathing review written by a Lockheed test pilot.
Also noticed this mentioned in the article:
But it’s clear Hanche’s review seeks to shoot down the anonymous pilot’s many complaints about the F-35, which have been cited by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has vowed on the campaign trail to cancel the Joint Strike Fighter programme.
So what would Trump do – scrap F-35 and order all-American VSTOL and an all-American strike aircraft with carrier version?
Spitfire9It’s tbc, but apparently Airbus has offered to set up a local production line for Eurofighter and EJ200 dubbed ‘Eurofighter City’, if true the smart money would have to be on them.
I recall that the 2 aircraft that met IAF requirement in MMRCA were Rafale and Typhoon. Rafale was selected on the basis of projected lower procurement + operational cost. I would be a little surprised if Typhoon were not considered now instead of Rafale. Rafale cost has inflated substantially (albeit with help from India wanting some customisation). I wonder if Typhoon would now prove cheaper. I think it may be in the long term, bearing in mind the cost of MLU asked for by Dassault for M2K.
I think it was a mistake for India to select a single winner in MMRCA when it did. It seems clear to me that there were several costs not included when a winner on cost was announced. I think India should have tried negotiating a detailed deal with both Dassault and Eurofighter at the same time and picked the one that promised to work out lower on cost.
Thinking of best application of capital goods and goods extraneous to client requirements (eg some Spanish + British? Typhoons), what would be sensible for Eurofighter would be to offer 2 or 3 squadrons of Typhoons for quick delivery sourced from excess Tranche 1, and offer to ship one of its assembly lines out to India. Eurofighter does not need 4 assembly lines.
Spitfire9Israel Reconsidering 2008 Purchase of U.S. Jets; Cabinet Mulls Cancelling Acquisition of Flawed Fighter-Jet Rejected By Most NATO Air Forces
???
Spitfire9LOL. I’d say with the ToT/licensed production angle out of the way (opening the door to the F-35) and several manufacturers looking to closing production lines in the absence of fresh orders (read: Eurofighter, SH, F-16, F-15), its even more of a buyer’s market than it was before.
I was talking about Rafale. Yes, I also think it’s a buyer’s market for Eurofighter, SH, F-16, F-15 but India wants a few squadrons of medium weight fighters which means Typhoon, SH should be the prime candidates for off-the-shelf procurement.
Spitfire9From the Indian sides perspective, appreciating things have changed would mean agreeing to terms which are much less equitable than those before. No Indian bureaucrat would sign off on that. It will invite censure and allegations of corruption. So the ball truly is in Dassaults court, until and unless it meets the MOD midway and offers a good deal (especially when there is no TOT anymore), India will walk.
Dassault has gone from 11 x 4 frames being required in the next 4 years for French forces (44) to 48 required by Egypt and Qatar in less than 4 years (I presume). With a UAE order for 50+ likely soon, the order backlog at 11 per annum production rate would have lengthened by nearly 10 years thanks to those 3 export deals. I gather production rate will be doubled but that does not happen overnight, so perhaps export order backlog will take about 6 years to clear. Then at some point French forces need more Rafale deliveries. I can’t see them waiting for ever so if some are supplied to French forces in the next 5 years or so, the backlog to clear extends past 6 years.
I don’t see Dassault being able to supply many Rafales to India in the near future. If UAE has negotiated delivery slots within 2-3 years should they order, how long would it take India to get its hands on 36 frames if UAE does order in the near future?
India needs to recognise that when Rafale was selected for MMRCA L1 it was a buyer’s market. Now it’s a seller’s market.
You say the ball’s in Dassault’s court. I don’t see why Dassault should have much interest in hitting it back over the net.
Spitfire9True to some extent (since this applies to their F-16s too). At the same time, the F-35 being designed for a high level of integration with other F-35s (among other reasons), means the coalition will value a detachment of four Belgian F-35As, lot more than it would four Rafales, five Super Hornets or six Gripen Es.
Does that mean Typhoon would be judged useful because UK (NATO member), Germany (NATO member), Italy (NATO member), Spain (NATO member) all use the same equipment? If so, perhaps the USA ought to be ordering a few so that it can a high level of integration with NATO members using Typhoon.
Spitfire9What use does Belgium have if 1st day strike? NONE. If it’s in a coalition, it will pretty much inevitably be one led by the USA, who will do the first day strikes in their own, as they did until now, regardless of what other lembers of that coalition operate.
There might be a political reason why Belgium (likely to have 3?/4? x F-35’s available for US-led NATO adventures) or The Netherlands (likely to have 4 x F-35’s available for same NATO operations) would want to show active support for US-led strike actions. However, I don’t think half a dozen or so Belgian + Dutch F-35’s would make any real difference militarily in something like a major conventional conflict where they could be outnumbered 10:1, 15:1, 20:1 by US F-35’s.
Spitfire9I think the bigger obstacle is the US releasing the plans for The B-61 to create compatibility if it is desired.
If Belgium chose to buy an aircraft used by another or other NATO countries and use of B-61 was not possible due to USA blocking its integration, that would be limiting Belgium’s contribution to NATO capability, wouldn’t it?
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