Article revealing Swiss government’s possible strategy aimed at avoiding a second plebiscite rejection of the fighter procurement programme:

https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2019/05/09/swiss-air2030-program-clears-hurdle-of-external-review-with-tweaks/

The Participants recognize that in conducting full and open competitions for the Project, full consideration will be given to all qualified sources from the other Participant’s country, to the extent consistent with the national laws, regulations, and policies of the Contracting Participant

“Full and open competitions”, means no promise of Industrial offsets. Trudeau Gov. structured the fighter competition in a way that violates the MOU that Canada signed. Period.

Looks like F-35 is a non-starter given that in the MOU it says full consideration will be given to the laws of the participants. If Canada has a law demanding offsets, Canada cannot in Canadian law accept a proposal that disbars offsets.

If such a law existed in Canada at the time the MOU was agreed – and the participants were aware of this -I don’t understand why either Canada or the US participant signed the MOU.

The US is not forcing anything on Canada. All we ask is that Canada sticks to the agreement that they not only willingly signed, but are currently benefiting from to the tune of $Billions.

I think the amount of funding provided by Canada for F-35 almost certainly exceeds profits from F-35 work. Do you recall that JSF was going to cost about the same as F-16, partly because work was going to be allocated to the most competitive partner bid? If so all partners including the US benefit.

If Canada did agree to no offsets if it bought F-35, fair enough. Puts the other contenders in a stronger position, though, doesn’t it?

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Says a lot about perceived “F-21” chances in India…

Well, there is still some demand for F-16 from countries that do not want to be supplied à la Indian (never know when it will be supplied). Had India announced it had decided to order a “Made in India F-21” how many years would it have been before aircraft actually rolled off the line – 3 years? 5 years? 10 years? Never because India changed her mind? If a country were serious about re-equiping its air force with an Indian produced F-16 within a planned time schedule, it would be taking a very big risk ordering F-21.

I see Dassault getting another Rafale order when India finds herself acutely short of fighters due to Tejas being many years late, MMRCA failing to produce any results after running for nearly 10 years, iMade in India producing no result etc etc

At the same time I hope that the interminably delayed Tejas programme keeps to current schedule and a squadron or more starts being produced each year.