Yes, that is the site I was talking about. I couldn’t find it on the EADS site. But its nothing problematic anyway. 🙂

@Flex: Well I think there also has to be some questioning of the 9060kgs for Rafale, because Dassault says “10t class”. This might refer to the Rafale M which is iirc nearer to 10t than 9t but still some degree of uncertainty remains.

The interesting bit is how many the Saudi will assemble themselves. A smallish number like 24-30 might indicate a follow-on order in a few years time, because the Saudis wouldn’t want their assembly line closing after just two or three years.

They apparently don’t need the second or third best aircraft either…or did they start buying MKIs or Rafales when I wasn’t paying attention?

Perhaps you didn’t pay enough attention to the capabilities of the mentioned aircraft? :diablo:

Here we go again:

uhmm, saudies need 220 new fighters to the futur project, first no one knows the finencial deal “as every deal is clear in that matter” here no one want to say something, so 24? 48?

Wrong. The Saudi MoD have clearly said that they will purchase 72 Eurofighter Typhoons. Also how do you arrive at the 220 figure? If the Typhoon replaces the Tornado ADV and the F5s, then there are F15s left [still a lot of life left in them] and the Tornado IDS which is likely to get an upgrade.

and second, saudies was talking about upgrading tornados IDF, after red shark they was impressed by the fighter that kicked thier @ss , the king traveled to Paris discusing about 48+48 rafales deal, in 2004, so saudies are still in talks with dassault about rafale purchase, the eurofighter was pushed rather tornados upgrade, but the initial rafale saudi deal goes on, to replace the rest of their needs!

Saudi Tornado upgrade prototypes are already at Warton for some time now.

don’t be to wonder when saudies will announce bigger rafale buys,
because they will never takes on only one source for their air force!

The USA is their second source.

details hided isn’t very glossy for the british, rewarding 2 or 3 times more money than getting could be something you aim to not keep aware to taxes payers..

Total nonsense. BAE will make a profit, otherwise they wouldn’t sign the deal.

let’s details comes on table, i plan there ‘ll be bigest surprises to come!

Yes, probably in form of a Tornado upgrade deal, a Hawk deal but no Rafale deal.

The Saudis bought 72 Tornados in the 80s and just a bit later another 48. I think we might see something similiar here, perhaps with another 48 Typhoons ordered when first deliveries start [perhaps 2008]. I doubt Rafale has any chance anymore. The Saudis will want to keep their Typhoon final assembly open.

Yeah, but the article specifically mentions that stuff as being separate. 5.4 billion for the aircraft, 5 billion for the parts, weapons, and initial support. That means the jet itself is nearly $150 million USD. Not that Saudi Arabia can’t afford it, but if EF-2000s are going ot be on the market at $150 million, the F-22A might be a lot more attractive to eligible customers. Hell, if you factor in the cost of the weapons and support into the mix, each EF-2000 is actually costing Saudi Arabia around $300 million!

I’ll say it again: The price probably includes training of Saudi nationals, investment in Saudi infrastructure [e.g. if there shall be a Saudi final assembly line then the Saudis will have to pay for tooling, the hall etc… that can cost something like 300 million dollars] and a massive BAE profit [these things were not mentioned specially, so I guess they are included somewhere]. The thing is, taking the Saudi price as an indication for a general export is silly because the Saudis cannot be compared with any “usual” customer. The Austrian price for the basic aircraft is 63 million Euros and is much more indicative of any usual export price I’d think.

To me that sounds like brochure speak and just a bit to similar to the wild claims of the DERA study that found in favour of the Eurofighter. Its a statement which means nothing in the real world.

I agree. I doubt that any competitor has access to the often highly classified evaluations. The not signing of T2 for Typhoon before the SK and SG competitions was its worst problem. They didn’t have a real aircraft to offer, this has changed now.