I’ve sometimes wondered if the Indian Air Force’s seemingly reckless disregard for the logistical inefficiencies involved in operating so many different aircraft isn’t driven at least in part by some idiosyncrasy or other of their budgeting process.

Problem is that funding isn’t going to be forthcoming for any of this stuff. The pressure on European defence budgets is only going to increase as the demographic crisis deepens, and the burgeoning naval powers appear to have grander ambitions than to finagle the operation of Sea Gripen-class aircraft from 25k ton carriers. If F-35B is cancelled, my bet is that that’s that for Italian/Spanish fixed-wing naval air.

Again, having a large economy does not mean they will buy a CVF.

Who said it did? Point is, Brazil can afford it if they want it. And there are good reasons to think that they might want it. Certainly they’re the most likely customer if it goes to market.

Also, adding HTML formatting does not change the fact that you are wrong.

What crawled up your ass? :rolleyes:

Large economy does not make large defence budget.

Sure it does. Of the Top 10 nations by GDP the only nations not also in the Top 10 by military expenditure are Brazil and Canada. They’re #12 and #13 respectively. And Brazil will be in the Top 10 by military expenditure soon enough and Canada will be kicked out of the Top 10 nations by GDP soon enough and replaced by India which is in the Top 10 by military expenditure, making it ten for ten.

Can’t imagine Dassault giving away its excellent digital fly-by-wire technology just for 36 fighters which will not even produced in Merignac?

36 aircraft is just the initial order. Likely the run would eventually grow to 100, maybe even 150 aircraft once the Navy gets into the mix.

Uhm… France (Rafale)
Uhm .. BEA Systems (a cross between the T-45 Goshawk and the Hawk 100/200)
Uhm … Brazil (Aversion of their AMX-ATA)

But who says Brazil will stay with Sao Paolo / Foch? Should they buy a new, larger carrier, that can do so from France, but they could also do so from India or – considering PLAN maval personnel trains on board Sao Paolo – from China.

Most likely they’ll build one themselves with French design assistance.

something as conspicuous as front-line European fighters for the defence of Japanese airspace would be a very hard sell to technically ignorant politicians.

When the DPJ came to power one of their promises was to establish a more balanced relationship between Japan and the United States. Translating that into action has proven difficult, and Hatoyama’s failure re: Okinawa proved to be his downfall. The evolving strategic environment coupled with Japan’s long-term lethargy makes most other potential gestures of Japanese independence unlikely also.

Acquiring Typhoon, though, would send a strong signal to both Washington and the Japanese people without actually rocking the boat very much – certainly less so than evicting the Marines from Okinawa would! In that light it would seem an attractive proposition from the DPJ’s perspective.