I don’t really understand the Boeing position since the company will lose a sale worth perhaps $5 billion plus if Canada does not order 24 F/A-18’s while the Delta order for 75 aircraft would not be worth $5 billion if Delta switched to Boeing 737.

Is Boeing being dumb here? Is the USA being dumb here? After all Canada could opt for Rafale/Gripen/Typhoon if need be.

Boeing just squished a future threat and competitor.

A few years ago there were a few articles and even discussions on how Boeing didn’t really care any more about the fighter market and how their biggest strength is the transport and airline segment. So it’s no big surprise that Boeing is willing to throw away any fighter sales to Canada, especially since their military procurement is horrible and no future sales are a given, and instead guarantee that their airliner market is blocked from another competitor.

Cheers,

By the way, the A4-ARs do have plenty of FH remaining, but we find it both strange and encouraging that they will retire in 2018.

Maybe they are being sold to Brazil while they are worth something? That way Argentina’s neighbours can guarantee a carrier-capable fighter force for the next few years without problems.

Best regards,

They can’t transfer intellectual property they do not own.

I think that that’s the point that he’s trying to make. They can’t really enforce the promise of 100% ToT that Embraer has talked about and people from both the Swedish and Brazilian side of the deals had “singed” about.

I see from the series of posts leading to this that their author assumes that despite all precedents, Brazil would be able to get full technology transfer for the F-18E from Boeing – although Boeing doesn’t own the technology for the APG-79, F414, ALR-67 etc., & Boeing has no control over the US State Department, which is notorious for its arbitrary refusals of ITAR permissions, or the US Congress, which has been known to override the State Department when it does grant ITAR approval. The USA’s closest ally, the UK, has suffered from this, & so has Brazil, but someone here assumes that Brazil would be permanently exempt in this one particular case. Doh!

I don’t disagree. But the truth is that ToT for the F/A-18 would have been more plausible since it’s all under “one flag” and not under many foreign companies.

As for any real 100% ToT, that’s just a pipe dream and all the talk about it was snake oil salesman talk.

Cheers,

Boeing, Paramount To Weaponize South African AHRLAC

Didn’t they just reduce a lot of their export prospects by adding American-made systems to the mix?

Best regards,

UAE has also been using their AT-802s to provide training to allied/friendly flight crews and ground forces. Those friendly/allied countries (like Yemen) cannot afford to operate something like an F-16 or spend a lot of time and money training pilots for fighter aircraft.

Best regards,

The likely numbers of heavy transports (i.e. A400M-class and above) to be acquired would seem to preclude much in the way of domestic industry involvement.

Not completely. Portugal isn’t buying the A400M and Salvador Caetano (Aeronautics) is still getting a contract for the production of A400M parts. If I’m not mistaken, this is relatead to a offset of the C-295 purchase. Given the importance of the DI partnership it is quite likely that they could still get some workshare of the A400M production or at least of spare parts for the A400M or other components that are common to the A400M and C-295 or other Airbus (both civilian and military) aircraft.

Best regards,

I have to disagree, the US wouldn’t mind and the UK wouldn’t care about second-hand F-16 being supplied to Argentina. As long as those second-hand F-16s didn’t come equipped with state-of-the-art sensors and weaponry for BVR combat and anti-shipping.

Gripen, on the other hand, would come with a lot of electronic warfare systems, BVR weapons, and sensors not produced by the US and the UK. This would make it more difficult for those two countries to impose restrictions on the Argentine Gripens capabilities. It would also make it more easy for Argentina to get upgrades from Brazil and South Africa to circumvent any imposed restrictions while with the F-16 it would be more difficult without the source codes.

Of course that this is only a small part of the whole problem.

Best regards,

Portugal:
I think that all, maybe almost all, acquisitions up to this day were very good given the country’s needs and its financial and operational means. However…

Portugal should had purchased C-130J-30s to replace its aging fleet of C-130H/H-30 instead of modernizing them and waiting around for the KC-390 development. (The C-130s replacement was postponed this month until next four years – when the LPM can be reviewed – or until 2025/30 – when it ends.)

Portugal should have never bought the NH-90 or any medium transport helicopters for the Army. It was a giant wet dream of the Army to even think that they would have the financial means to deploy such aircraft outside the country.

If they really wanted their own helicopters then we should have created something along the lines of the British Joint Helicopter Command and created an Army unit the same way that the Navy reestablished its aviation by working closely with the Air Force and using the AF’s infrastructure and assets in the beginning. At most, if the Army really wanted medium transport helicopters, it should have bought second-hand Blackhawks from the US or bought a cheaper Cougar/Super Puma without all those advanced avionics and systems that the NH-90 brings by default.

Alternatively, Portugal should have never canceled its NH-90 acquisition after investing so much money into the development program. Instead, it should had bought the NH-90, even if the TTH version, for the Portuguese Navy since they already had a helicopter unit set up and with all the support and logistics knowledge required. These NH-90s in the Navy’s unit could had been operated by both Navy and Army crews in support of both Army and Navy/Marines’ operations. They could also have had been used instead of the more expensive (but excellent) EH-101 CSAR on any amphibious ship that Portugal could acquire by miracle in the future.

Best regards,