Spitfire9Out of curiosity, how long can the SuperHornet line remain open with existing orders? With repeated postponements by Brazil, might the SuperHornet line be programmed to shut down before Brazil orders a fighter?
Spitfire9Despite all the technological, commercial and political competence of the France, this preference by French companies has been surprising the other countries once the France has achieved civil and military contracts of great importance of the Brazilian Government, while other countries has been frozen or canceled their contracts, such as the purchase of the Boeing KC 767 for Brazilian Air Force from Israel who had won the competition, but that the President of Brazil has been canceled them because prefer the Airbus KC 330 despite this last one was overcome in the competition.
Was the KC767 selected by Brazil in a competition in the same way as the KC330 was selected by the USA in a competition?
Spitfire9South Korea to obtain 40 F-35As
http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/south-korea-to-obtain-40-f-35as-393402/
Spitfire9DUBAI — Eurofighter is targeting the middle of 2014 to secure a deal with the fast jet’s European partner nations to develop an active electronically-scanned array (AESA) radar for the Typhoon, consortium officials said at the Dubai Airshow on Wednesday.
“The details will be frozen by the end of the year and there is a clear target from ourselves and our core customers, endorsed by our defense ministers, to sign a contract between us by mid-2014,” said Laurie Hilditch, Eurofighter’s head of future capability.
The deal will involve the development of a production-standard AESA radar by the Selex ES-led Euroradar consortium.
Hilditch declined to give a timetable for completion of the program or cost for the development contract.
Would I be right in thinking that because of the inertia of the partner countries in implementing an AESA go ahead tranche 3 aircraft willhave to be fitted with Captor M then retrofitted with AESA, so wasting many, many of millions of euros/pounds?
Spitfire9http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/dubai-air-show/2013-11-18/no-hurry-new-uae-fighter
The UAE is in no immediate hurry to acquire a new fighter, although it is anxious to fully contribute to the security of the Gulf countries, according to Major General (ret.) Khaled Abdullah Al Bu-Ainnain, former commander of the UAE Air Force. Khaled told AIN here yesterday that, “it takes years to negotiate a new fighter contract.” His comments will dampen expectations of a near-term order or MoU for the Eurofighter Typhoon that have been raised by the British diplomatic and industrial offensive here this week.
So an order for Typhoon in the immediate from UAE is extremely unlikely.
It has been reported that Saudi Arabia would fund any Typhoon purchase by Bahrain,
Whereas if the above is true, an order from Bahrain is very likely
Spitfire9the NG’s technological edge (such as it is) will not endure a decade down the line, unlike the F-35 where the size of the program ensures that it will receive a consistent stream of upgrades sanctioned and funded by the US DoD.
I seem to recall that SAAB will be providing updates and support for the Gripen NG for sevaral more decades. If I’m wrong the Swedish and Swiss governments would be interested to hear about this very bad news.
Spitfire9We’re talking about its utility in expeditionary warfare and not fighting off a Warpac invasion. Its already been said that if the Netherlands does not feel it necessary to operate a modern air force, given its location and circumstances, so be it. No judgement. If however they wish to participate in the front-line of action overseas, then the F-35 is the most obvious choice.
This political commentary about NATO membership has nothing to do with the debate on the F-35.
I think that the argument for F-35 is very much intertwined with politics via NATO and its dominant member, the USA. The USA selected the fighter considered most suited to its own air defence needs (including considerations of its entire defence budget) in selecting F-35. It was not selected on the basis of what was best for NATO and its other members. Had that been the objective the USA would have selected a design more along the lines of an F-16 successor. IMO it therefore makes little sense to expect other NATO members to select what is best suited to the USA’s air defence needs rather than their own (including considerations of their own entire defence budgets).
The notion that non-US NATO member countries need to order F-35 to make an effective contribution to NATO operation is false. The reduction in overall defence capability through non-US NATO countries procuring and operating F-35 far outweighs any benefits brought by equipment commonality with the USAF.
Spitfire9‘Price went through the ceiling’? How so? Its currently in the $110 million/unit range which will drop to $90-100 million at the end of the SDD.
Given that powered aircraft do not work in the absence of a powerplant I think it makes no sense to quote costs for aircraft without engines.
Spitfire9India Plays Down Prospect Of Early Rafale Fighter Deal
Spitfire9Taking place at company sites in Manching, Germany and Getafe, Spain, the “intensive” test effort, using instrumented production aircraft 4 and 7, has validated the Phase 1 Enhancement (P1E) programme, says Cassidian. This, it adds, “delivers a simultaneous multi-/swing-role capability to the nations’ air forces”, and will be available to customers from end-2013.
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Key elements of the P1E package include the full integration of Rafael’s Litening targeting pod and precision-guided bombs, and the full digital integration of the Diehl BGT Defence IRIS-T short-range air-to-air missile.
Spitfire9F-35 and Rafale to have twin engined market to themselves by 2020 (excluding Russian & Chinese aircraft) according to Richard Aboulafia:
“In 2020, excluding Chinese and Russian models, there will be just five military combat aircraft in production: the F-35, Dassault’s Rafale, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s light combat aircraft, Korea Aerospace Industries’ TA-50 and Saab’s Gripen….”
By the way, Aboulafia also thinks the F-35 will cost $125 million which will hamper exports. So limited buying choices by 2020 – either costly F-35 or less costly Rafale, otherwise a lightweight fighter.
Spitfire9S. Korea Develops First Radar-Absorbing Paint
“The radar-absorbing material can be applied with a spray to make it lighter, durable and cheaper than the current tile- or sheet-type electromagnetic wave absorbers made of an iron mixture, Kim Yong-hwan, the director of the Stealth Technology Center, said.
“This paint greatly decreases warships’ visibility on radars to help raise their survivability from missile attacks,” the former Navy Captain said, showing an iron sheet coated with the paint that absorbs up to 99 percent of radar waves.”
Spitfire9SAAB say they have completed the design work for Sea Gripen they say it will have the same engine – sensors and avionics fit as the E/F will cost $4000 per flight hour including fuel and can be operated for 30-40 years dependent on mission rates
Never has so much been designed so quickly by so few (in recent times). In terms of efficiency and effectiveness SAAB seem to operate on an entirely different level to other fast jet designers.
IIRC a team of less than 20 was set up in the UK about 2 years ago to complete the initial design of Sea Gripen.
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Spitfire9Personally, I see little advantage with Brazil purchasing the PAK-FA. As the latter is going to be expensive ($100+) and overkill for the foreseeable future.
Yes, I can see that.
Plus, Brazil would gain more from a deal with the US on a number of levels. That said, the problem for the Brazilian Government is purely Political.
What does Brazil gain from buying a US product? I imagine any TOT would be limited. Super Hornet is not a better all-rounder than Rafale. US slaps embargoes on customer countries that do not toe its foreign policy line.
My guess and it’s only a guess. Is Brazil will just continue to delay purchasing a New Fighter until things calm down. Then if and when the time is right. It will select the Super Hornet anyways……..Just my 2 cents.
Super Hornet is a good aircraft but long in the tooth. Rafale outperforms it (range, weapons load, air-to-air combat, RCS) and is still being actively developed. The only major advantage I could see for Super Hornet is cost to buy the airframes. Cheaper MLU than Rafale, I would expect, too.
Spitfire9India Concerned About Fifth-Gen Fighter Work Share With Russia
The aircraft is a derivative project from the Russian single-seat Sukhoi T-50 or PAK FA being developed for the IAF. Currently, four T-50 prototypes have performed more than 200 test flights since January 2010. The Russian air force plans to begin inducting the fighter in 2015.
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India had initially pitched for 166 single-seat and 48 twin-seat fighters, but the IAF now plans to stick with single-cockpit fighters to reduce costs and protect stealth features.
http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/asd_10_21_2013_p01-01-628343.xml&p=2
I was under the impression that most of the design work had been done (T-50) and that India’s input would principally be designing the 2 seater version which has now been dropped. Russia cannot share the work of designing what has already been designed, so is India just going to be a a token co-designer?
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