Spending say… $20 bn on R&D would eat up half of France’s $40 bn defence budget but only consume 3% of the $650 bn US defence budget

Its not French R&D budget but collecting money at EU level to fund R&D under France that’s why it is called Franco-German fighter. there are plenty of other errors in your post.

Every thing is at EU level to collect funds.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/06/france-le-maire-digital-tax-needs-approval-by-the-end-of-the-year.html
[COLOR=#424858][FONT=Lyon][SIZE=18px]”We want the adoption of the directive on digital taxation by the end of this year. This is a clear red line for the French government,” Bruno Le Maire, France’s finance minister

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Those issues are not fixable.

Poor Belgium… aircraft industry there is dead. One more victim of F-35

what choice left for them?. It is more than likely Belgium will be spreading procurement like Italy over number of years.

https://www.defensenews.com/global/e…fense-in-2019/

The source added that F-35 purchases would be “slowed” in order to spread out payments. Italy is currently planning to buy 90 aircraft.

it is just matter of time. All are in the same basket.

https://www.dw.com/en/never-mind-ita…own/a-46016436

Never mind Italy, France faces its own fiscal showdown

[LEFT]The European Commission this week told France, Spain, Belgium, Portugal [COLOR=#3E3E3E][FONT=Georgia][SIZE=15px]and Slovenia that their 2019 budget proposals did not meet recommended targets for cutting longer-term deficit cycles.

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[quote]It would not surprise me if sequestration strangled everyone’s readiness. [/quote]
. by the time sequestration (5% impact a year)was implemented the energy, inflation, interest rates were at lowest. these are the key ingredients of of supplying low cost product and service from contractors. so how can removing sequestration in current high cost environment solve the problem when stealth fleet is much bigger in quantity.

French are already giving ultimatums to Germany for money. This 6G fighter is beyond the financial and technical ability.

https://www.dw.com/de/le-maire-verlangt-mehr-tempo-von-berlin/a-45745302
[LEFT][COLOR=#000000][FONT=Georgia][SIZE=17px]Also a common budget was necessary. Otherwise threaten a dramatic consequence.

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French if smart will realize soon that this project with Germany is unworkable.

This thing has gone quiet .

it does not give confidence. I don’t think there will be 6G fighter produced in Europe. they better try luck with 7G fighter to make development time line extend.