Fact is the aeronatical leaders in Europe, France and Sweden

Well, you might be able to argue that for France, but Sweden? I dare say no. The whole Saab Group for instance iirc has less employees than BAE Systems Military Air Solutions. Saab’s work on UAVs is impressive because their company and Sweden as a nation are rather small (for Sweden I mean this economy wise), but it imo can’t compete with e.g. the work the UK has put into UAVs and UCAVs (Corax, Raven, Kestrel, Nightjar I, Nightjar II, Taranis, Herti-1D, Herti-1A, Herti-1B etc…) and is still going to put in. Also Germany is quite strong in the UAV sector with the Barracuda (yes it crashed but I’d think they learned a lot from it), the Agile programme, the Eurohawk (with the USA) and other systems. Italy of course has the Sky-X and it’s successor, in addition to a stake in Neuron. As for the overall aerospace industry and the respective national capabilities, I’d put Sweden on place 4 or 5 in the EU, after the UK, France, Germany and perhaps Italy. Employment wise Sweden is on number 6 after the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain (so says figure 20 in the SBAC 2006 report).

Fact is the aeronatical leaders in Europe, France and Sweden, has consistently delivered successful programs throughout history and has a common view on the Neuron project so there’s little to worry about.

And yet it would seem that the Neuron programme is moving rather slowly forward.

But also little Germany could technically contribute with.

I’d disagree. Germany has so far flown the largest (by weight) European UAV.
I’m sure they could contribute a lot (imo certainly more than e.g. Greece or Spain.). Though they are working on their Agile UAV programme anyway.

Significant knowledge passed down from the predecessors Saabs Sharc/Filur as well as the Dassault Petit Duc/Moyen Duc also further reduce program risks. Filur is essentially a baby-neuron and is already undertaking a second flight test campaign this year.

Which raises major questions regarding Neuron imo. I believe the DGA warned already that first flight might slip into 2012. Dassault it seems remains committed to 2011.

Very good news for VT Group! 😀

Shipbuilder wins £150m contract

The off-shore patrol vessels should be completed in 2009

More than 100 jobs will be created in Hampshire after shipbuilding company VT Group won a £150m contract to build three off-shore patrol vessels.

The Southampton-based company signed a contract with the Trinidad and Tobago Coastguard to supply the three patrol vessels for the Caribbean islands.

The ships, which will be 295ft (90m) in length, will be built at the firm’s yard in Portsmouth.

Production is expected to start in the autumn for completion in 2009.

The boats will be used for a range of economic exclusion zone (EEZ) management, special operations and maritime law enforcement.

Paul Lester, VT chief executive, said the contract would sustain about 200 existing jobs and was a “further notable export success” in addition to a contract to build three advanced ocean patrol vessels for the government of Oman.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/6540543.stm

This just shows how little you care about military aviation and are just interested in a pathetic, xenophobically driven, international pissing contest.

I don’t see what was xenophobic about my post at all! 😡 If I were you I’d think a bit before insulting someone heavily by implying someone’s xenophobic! 😡 😮 🙁 😡 😡 😡 (I still know when someone called you racist for nothing, you complained at the time but you aren’t behaving any better at all right now*) By the way the xenophobic theme sort of doesn’t fit when I just a page before posted my admiration of Melissa Theuriau and said I didn’t care who owned e.g. British firms**. Apart from that I was under the impression that it wasn’t me who first brought cars into the debate and I am also under the impression that posting half a dozen smilies showed that I meant it in a friendly manner.

* I think it was you anyway
** Yes I also said the owners should invest in the home country but I don’t see what’s wrong about that

Any Frenchie could answer by posting a pic of Renault F1 (current champion if you did not notice), which would leave this Bentley in dust miles behind it, this whole thread makes no sense anymore.

Except for the fact that the Renault F1 car is developed and built in the UK (to be exact in Enstone, Oxfordshire). 😀 Actually iirc over 50% of all F1 cars are built in the UK (Oxfordshire is also known as “Motorsport Valley”). The engine and tyres are iirc French though. 😉 Anyhow I thought this small “pissingcontest” was about beauty and not speed, otherwise I might as well post a picture of the JCB Dieselmax. 😀

Link about the Renault F1 team:
http://www.sportnetwork.net/main/s208/st22627.htm

Image of the JCB Dieselmax:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/be/Jcbdieselmax.jpg

BTW, most Bentley owners consider the car as P.O.S., but it is often a condition to enter some of their private luxury clubs… The rich usually buy Mercedes for driving and Bentleys for just showing off…

I don’t know about that, but I know that Bentley has increased production from several hundred to now about 10000 a year.

Always a german car: Audi/VW own Bentley.

Otherwise with same logic I could say that Bugatti is always French.

Bugatti is a French brand imo. Your “same logic” is imo totally correct. Their cars are French, not German. Who owns a company does not define what a company or their product is. Where the work is performed matters imo. Of course there are differences, just because the new Nissan Qashqai was designed, engineered and is being built in the UK doesn’t make Nissan a British car brand, though it does make the Qashqai a British product. And if Bentley produces cars in the UK and has it’s background there I don’t see why it is a German company, more like a British company owned by a German one (iirc Bentley Motors Ltd. wholly owned by VW AG). In the car industry the differentiation is easier than in other industries because brands don’t disappear easily and production usually doesn’t get transferred. The other extreme is of course Rover, the cars labelled “Rover” that are being built in China imo have nothing to do with the UK anymore, neither brand nor productionwise. Though if we rated everything on shareownership we might as well look which hedge funds own shares in Renault, Daimler-Chrysler, BMW, Honda etc… and that could give a very interesting result. :p

But why are we discussing cars, when there are AIRCRAFT to discuss? 😀

Europe? Yes, without having to pay for it and probably while the central bank is telling UK and France they need to cut public spending.

That thought was competing with another bit of cynicism- “now it is sure USA will have 2 CVF”

And I thought the UK will have 2 CVFs, France 1 CdeG and 1 PA2 and no one except the UK and France respectively will have a say in how they are used. 😀

The Typhoon has exceptional MMH/FH < 9 hours as defined by contract and according to some about 6 hours in real life. (Subject to parts being available), bettered only by the Gripen and estimated equal to the JSF (a one engine design)

According to http://www.airpower.at the MMH/FH is expected to be only 4.85 hours.

You can look it up under:

Eurofighter -> Eurofighter Technik -> Wartung