He is a wannabie at least.

Like Stalin? :diablo:

Actually I am often impressed by the breadth of JSR‘s ‘sphere of engagement’, however one-sided its application. It’s like watching one of those fight scenes where everything that isn’t nailed down becomes a weapon to be hurled across the room — knives, plates, chairs, supercomputers… :p

Yes, another intriguing possibility. It would seem to be incompatible with the notion of a ‘hybrid’ EPE/EDE configuration too. In any case, I’m sure we will find out eventually.

All true but what will France do for a second Carrier??? Maybe go back to the CVF at some point?

I think we’ll see a joint French-Brazilian carrier program in the 2020s.

The Russians won’t sell them any engines.

What’s up with that? Why isn’t Russia pushing gear at Iran?

Regardless of where AMCA is at relative to KF-X right now, I’d put money on the Koreans reaching IOC first.

Another issue is the politics. A multinational fighter project works the best when there is a lead country to pull the project forward. Having a bunch of nations with “equal” stakes drags the project down in politics.

+1 to this as well.

The Americans view India as a potential ally in the Asian theater against a rising China and would do everything to stop India’s speedy collapse apart from directly involving in the conflict.

For the moment, sure. Give it another thirty years, though, and America will be looking around for allies to contain a rising India. Playing China and India off against one another is an obvious move.

It’s the same in Europe. In NATO the United States has allies that are useful, but non-threatening. They can be pushed around, or ignored. The one thing the United States does not want is the emergence of a united Europe (or South America, come to that) able to threaten American hegemony. America subsidises the defence of the European continent precisely to ensure that it remains weak and fragmented, much as Britain did before it.

NATO wouldn’t get involved against an adversary that could seriously threaten it. Sending a few unfortunate souls off to bum****istan to placate the United States as it pays for your defence is one thing, actually putting the state on the line is quite another.

Nobodies hoping the USA is going to slash defence budgets

Anyone concerned for the health of the nation and the welfare of its citizens is hoping for significant reductions in military expenditure.

Needless to say, this excludes virtually the entire governmental and political apparatus. C’est la vie.