Spitfire9The Korean Times were 100% certain that the F-15 “Silent Eagle” was going to win the FX-III “competition”, reporting that the F-35 was all but out and had no chance of being selected according to their “ears inside”… Pretty much sums up their credibility.
It did win the “competition” – it was selected.
Spitfire9Discussions to resolve contract differences on India’s planned purchase of Dassault Rafale fighters for its $12 billion Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) program are likely to top the agenda when French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius begins a two-day visit to New Delhi on June 30.
There are STILL contract differences after 30 months of talking?
Spitfire9Ottawa to Put Fighter Jet Purchase On Hold
Sources say the government feels it’s being rushed and pressured by the Canadian Armed Forces and parts of the civil service to purchase the F-35 without a competition. The government, which took a serious credibility hit in 2012 over its poor management of the procurement process, is now concerned only one fully fleshed-out option has been presented for review and that it resembled a decision to be ratified rather than a well-developed option.
Interesting. I guess the air force wanted the shinier of the 2 US options on offer. Not sure what interest the civil service has in F-35 being selected without a competition. Can anyone suggest why the civil service would not want a competition? What’s the angle there?
Spitfire9I meant that RB199 was designed for the Tornado and stayed largely exclusive to the Tornado (possibly because it had limited utility elsewhere). I wondered if the EJ200 project office is an entity linked exclusively to Eurofighter or if it would be simple to start offering it to other fighter projects.
Some years ago Eurojet competed with GE for the engine to be used in Tejas MkII so it looks like it could be offered for other projects.
Spitfire9Couldn’t RR (as the biggest partner) offer the Eurojet EJ200 or a variant thereof?
Dunno. But I expect that RR would have to pay the other Eurojet partners for using their IP. Perhaps they came to terms with the other parties soon after receiving the RFP earlier this year and are preparing a specification and price based on a modification of the EJ200 engine. Perhaps they ae not in a position to submit a response to the RFP.
Spitfire9The projected cost to upgrade F-35 jets built by Lockheed Martin Corp. has declined by about $920 million, or 36 percent, in less than two years, according to the Pentagon’s latest analysis.
The estimate for improvements and corrections for aircraft already built or planned in the first 10 contracts to be awarded through 2016 has dropped to about $1.65 billion from a $2.57 billion estimate in September 2012, the Pentagon said in an annual assessment to Congress. The projection is $100 million less than the one made last year.
The need to retrofit the planes stems from the Defense Department’s decision to produce the F-35, the costliest weapons system, even as it’s still being developed. The Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer has criticized that approach, known as concurrency.
Spitfire9Seems like Austria will replace their airforce with Hungarian Gripen C… http://kurier.at/chronik/oesterreich/ungarische-gripen-sollen-wien-sichern/71.253.890
😀
Without getting my dictionary out, I’m not sure exactly what the article says but it does mention the possibility of Austria relying on Hungary’s co-operation for fighter cover if Typhoon use is restricted. It does not say that Austria would be replacing its Typhoons with Gripens.
Spitfire9Finally, it appears that India will make serious efforts to export arms
India Can Export Fighter Planes, Missiles, Says Defence Research Chief
The penny is finally starting to drop: if you invest in developing something and succeed in coming up with a product that is extremely competitive by world standards, you are in a position to reap enormous returns on your investment. Of course, you need to develop abilities in marketing, selling and product support or your product will not be successful in the market. I hope that is recognised by the DRDO chief.
Spitfire9The article says a contract won’t be signed until 2018. If they decide on the Super hornet say next year (or any aircraft) after having decided to have a competition following the summer decision then I am sure Boeing would lobby hard (if they win) to keep the SH line a bit longer so that it can produce enough jets at a lowered rate so that its in the business by the time Canada signs the contract.
Too late for Canada to be involved in Super Hornet industrially though IMO. In any event I guess the only Super Hornets produced 2018+ would be those for Canada so the benefits of full industrial participation would be tiny compared with involvement in F-35.
Additionally, had they not tried to conceal the full cost of F-35 they could have run a selection competition years ago with a winner that could enter service in time to retire CF-18’s as planned. The “fiddle the F-35 figures so it is selected” brigade has quite possibly jeopardised Canadian defence by delaying CF-18 replacement.
Spitfire9Re: Canada’s F-18 replacement:
Not quite sure what to make of this but postponing to 2018+ would almost certainly eliminate the only likely alternative to F-35 (a different US aircraft) since Super Hornet will almost certainly be out of production by then.
Spitfire9I think they will have a dual fighter fleet in 2023 but I think it will be composed of F-16 and F-35. I don’t see the indigenous TF-X entering service until the late 2020’s.
Spitfire9Rafale will cull both fuel and labor costs, which should help pay the bill.
Yes, compared with more Sukhois. A future 50%+ of original cost MLU will screw costings up but somewhat but hey, once you’ve fielded that cost, they’ll be cheaper than Sukhois again , won’t they? Good way to feel good about paying much more than you should IMO. Runs can be short, medium or long, I think. To me the most pertinent deal is the long one – it enables your system to work more efficiently: more bangs per buck over x years is generally better than less bangs over x years (unless you are fortunate to have the nowce of the people doing arms procurement who see half as much as could have been achieved without their input as a great triumph).
Sorry, just have a penchant to being realistic in a completely rarified, unrealistic world. No experience in defence me. Never set anything up that cost millions or billions.
Correction: have been involved in defence now and then. That’s why my opinion that it’s run as a comedy is not entirely baseless.
Spitfire9To quote from the article –
One of the biggest concerns of the Spanish navy about its future — the ‘expiration’ of the Harrier fighters and their complicated succession – has now been solved by a 70-million euro plan to extend their service life beyond 2025.
And the UK sold 50+ Harriers for 78 million peanuts (I think it was 78 million) when they retired them, leaving an absolute capability gap of an unknown number of years! Actually it doesn’t matter whether they flogged them for the price of 1 or 2 or 3 F-35’s. Madness! At least the Spanish aren’t entirely loco!
Spitfire9Quote – Dassault has had difficulty in selling the aircraft abroad, despite successful high-profile combat missions in Libya and Mali.
How diifficult was it for Boeing, Eurofighter, MiG etc to sell their wares abroad? Very easy / easy / difficult / extremely difficult? Who has bought F/A-18 who was not let down by LM? Let’s cut the crap, if you’re half a decade late, you have let customers down and they may feel they need fighters in the absence of F-35 being available when expected. Yes, Eurofighter has sold to a couple of ME countries but I would suggest that politics meant they were in line for the contracts. Who has bought MiG-35 or F-16 (recently and Irak does not count for political reasons). Dassault have been selected to supply 125 (possibly a lot more) Rafale to India in a non-poltical competition so I rather think that the unpopular jets are Gripen, F-16, F-18, Eurofighter and MiG-35.
Spitfire9Well, sooner or later Swiss will have to decide. Either buy a new plane or leave QRA to neighborhood countries.
In a few years (after 2018), choice can be even more limited then it’s today for new purchases. Gripen and what’s left? F-35?
But it was people’s stupid decision. Swiss was granted 2 billions of work with Sweden for the next few years. Almost everything was negotiated and already signed. I guess this was quite a blow for some Swiss companies that counted on this long term cooperation.
And not to consider Swiss could sell PC-21 to Sweden for the training. Now everything is gone …
If the Swiss public are not inclined to vote to finance new aircraft now, will they vote for new aircraft in 5 or 10 years’ time? I don’t see them being offered a ‘sweetheart’ deal by SAAB (no need to find an export customer to trigger go ahead of Swedish government support for Gripen E). Other possible types: F-18? Out of production. Typhoon? Ditto. Rafale? Unlikely due to cost. F-35? Even more so. KAI-FA50? Possible. Tejas MkII? Would it even be considered?
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