All or nothing

I agree with Swerve ,the important thing is to get somthing, either ship would do. I suspect the signing of the Agreement may have some bearing on the outcome as it is not far away [so they say] . The failure of the F100 to get the nod in the AWD comp. ruled out a much touted F100,LHD deal with Spain, although the F100 is the OTS fallback in the AWD scenario.I like the Mistral as it is in service & has been used with success off Lebanon. There have been some teething troubles [Lifting lino etc.] but there seem to have been nothing that cant be easily overcome [no prop trouble etc.ala CdeG.]
Funding for these things comes from different budgets [ Navy AF Army] but they all add up in the overall Defence budget. With the imminent purchase of 24 Superhornets lets hope nothing has to be “delayed” to pay for them eg. LHDs. I cant bear the thought of them becoming a CVF saga ,I dont believe this fantasy ship {CVF] will ever be built but that is on another thread. The signing of the Defence agreement particularly at this point of time seems to me have other implications ,these things usually do,my money is clearly on the Mistral.

Program Brief

The Lightening 2 brochure called Program Brief shows 6 AAMs carried by the Block3 JSF flying in DCA mode.[page 42] I dont know how much notice you can take of some of this info.
For those who dont have the brochure try http://www.jsf.mil & go to downloads there are plenty of them.

Who is Who

Hi Contrailjj
Which parts of the user profile would like to be made public,not a “Show us your ID”sort of thing I hope.

Super-lative

I do not know how to post links ,I can read them though & there is a good story relative to this thread in the latest ADBR magazine
I’ll try here http://www.adbr.com.au
I will admit I got this off an OZ forum but it is an interesting read if you are interested in this subject.

I presume this purchase (if it is in fact official) has come about as the result of the unsolicitored offer made by Boing to the Australian Government several months ago. I wonder if any other aircraft have been considered? Rafale for one would do well in a comparison with these two relatively slow modern fighters, also the F15K or whatever is the latest model.

Boeing has been trying to flog the Super down here for some time & has demonstrated one to the military on several occasions with well known pilot Ricardo Traven flying it ,I have read that they have made a number of unsolicited proposals in the past .To my knowledge they have not tried to flog the Eagle however it turns up at Avalon airshow regularly [2 yearly anyhow]. One thing mitigating against the Eagle that I must admit I read on another forum is that the St. Loius assembly line is busy with South korean order until 2008 followed by the Singapore order. To increase the numbers coming off the line to an extra 12-14 a year to get the things in time would probably incure quite substantial extra cost.
With regard to the combat radius of the Superbug the following info was in an Aus. Aerospace article in 2001 .It was 1 of 3 articles published at a time when Boeing had the Supebug down here giving demos at Avalon & I assume they are Boeing figs.-With three 480 USG [1815l] drop tanks,full internal fuel, combat & reserve fuel allowances, 8-AIM-120Amraams, 2-AIM-9 Sidewinders the aircraft has a point intercept radius in excess of 650nm [1205km]with some assumptions made for expended missles.
Like yourself I will be convinced of the reality of this deal when we read somthing more concrete.:confused:

Oh Lonesome Me

You also have to factor in the economic gains from a single country going it alone in value to the economy. If the UK (or Germany, possibly Italy, probably not spain) had done this fighter on their own most of the value would have been kept in the national economy, rather than funding development in other countries which is lost money to the national finances. Admittedly, a lot of that would then be blown in offset and workshare details to try and bring in export orders.

We all know it is too late now,but,if Sweden could do it alone then surely the UK or Italy with aerospace industry already in place industry could have done it too. At least they could have gotten whatever suited them best & I would think they would have their plane further advanced by now than the EF is at present. Anyhow the opportunity is gone for good so best to get the most out of what they have got.:)

Tanking or wanking

[QUOTE=Scooter;1056946]Its an all purpose tanker………….isn’t it?:D
It can be used as a tanker but the fittings etc. would have to be bought,at least this is one advantage over the Eagle, however I dont imagine this feature would be bothered with at this time as it is usually associated with aircraft operated from carriers & IF the Super is purchased it would get into service around the same time as our new A330 tankers which would be seen by the pollies & general public as the planes to do the tanking job without expending money on buddy tanking somthing almost rarely done by land based planes.If buddy tanking was purchased it would add a new dimension to operational capabilities but I cant see it happening anymore than I can see “growlers” being purchased,again somthing we have never been involved with or most other small Air Forces for that matter.
Anyhow the deal is not done yet,nothing has been announced that I have heard. I am starting get as nervous as those who are waiting for CVF contracts to be signed.:confused: :confused: 🙁