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m.ileduets

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December 20, 2003 at 7:56 pm in reply to: Czech Republic chooses Swedish Gripen fighters over US F-16s #2684882

m.ileduets
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Then why was it done? Certainly
a) for political reasons: to create closer links to Poland as a new ally.
But probably also
b) to drive competitors out of the market. It seems that the LM is trying to obtain a monopoly in the western fighter market and that this is in the best interest of the Bush administration, which is willing to support it with taxpayers money and diplomatic initiatives.

December 20, 2003 at 11:00 am in reply to: Czech Republic chooses Swedish Gripen fighters over US F-16s #2685048

m.ileduets
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Originally posted by SOC
I think what gets people worked up is the backhanded tactics we sometimes use in order to get a sale or a lease. Can’t say that I agree with it-a sovereign nation should be able to choose what it spends its money on. Then again, being a sovereign nation, we should be able to offer whatever type of deal we wish, and it’s up to the buyer to accept or reject our terms. But like I said before, I don’t agree with some of the tactics that have been employed recently.

I’m glad to hear that from a US- poster.
Of course the US admin. is free to profit from its strong position and resort to tactics as seen in the Czech republic, South Corea, etc.
They just have to be aware that they lose quite a bit of sympathy and credibility as “free market” advocates by doing so. I don’t know if this is worth the price measured with the size of deals at stake.
The US can still make big bucks with deals like their missile defence system for Japan without looking “nasty”.

December 19, 2003 at 4:44 pm in reply to: Czech Republic chooses Swedish Gripen fighters over US F-16s #2685559

m.ileduets
Participant

Originally posted by Distiller
In 15 years the free world will fly F-35. Just a few European kooks will seek justification not to scrap their politically/anti-US motivated geriatric hermite-antiques.

Well, there goes your broad selection. Are we sort of contradicting ourselves?
I’ d be happy to have a broad selection in 15 years. But it does look as if the selection really could be pretty small thanks to the US- admin.’s attempt to monopolize the market with their fishy marketing policy.
It somehow makes me feel uncomfortable to see the US with a fighter plane monopoly though. I hope the Europeans/ Asians/ Latin Americans/ Africans will decide wise in their future acquisitions.

December 19, 2003 at 4:18 pm in reply to: Malaysian Hawk crash 2 dead.. #2685597

m.ileduets
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Re: Re: Swiss Hawks

Originally posted by Steve Touchdown
Errrr….yes, they are. They are (all?) being kept in flyable storage at the moment but I’m not sure how vigorously they’re being hawked 😀 around on the open market.

Best regards

Steve Rush ~ Touchdown-News

It really suprises me that -given their impeccable condition- there seems to be so little interest around. Airforces are probably all waiting for th PC-21 😀

December 19, 2003 at 2:16 pm in reply to: Czech Republic chooses Swedish Gripen fighters over US F-16s #2685715

m.ileduets
Participant

Originally posted by Distiller
As I already said earlier. Politics is a bad advisor when it comes to acquiring military equipment. But in a couple of years the options to choose from would have been broader.

We can all agree on the first part, I think.

But is the choice really going to be broader in a couple of years? To me it seems that there’s a big concentration going on with always fewer models trying to cover the whole spectrum. How many models is the JSF supposed to replace? How many the Rafale or the EF? How many companies will there be left selling fighter jets in ten, fifteen years? Fifteen years ago even countries like Yugoslavia produced their own ones (not that they were really good…). Now not even Italy, Germany or Great Britain do sth. independently anymore.
I’m sure in a couple of years the options will be better (and this has always been the case, thanks to progress 😉 ), but broader?

December 19, 2003 at 1:54 pm in reply to: Czech Republic chooses Swedish Gripen fighters over US F-16s #2685729

m.ileduets
Participant

Well- take away the political pressure…

I don’t really want to know what went on behind the scenes in Poland, Korea and the UAE’s now that we see what’s been going on in the Czech republic.
If the Bush admin. has to use “godfather” methods (“we offered them a deal they couldn’t refuse”) to close a deal, times must be really bad for American fighter jets.:D

December 19, 2003 at 10:01 am in reply to: RAF Typhoon cannon saga continued #2685891

m.ileduets
Participant

That’s what I was saying before: a cannon is just a necessity for air policing: You can’t fire warning shots with AAMs. Plus once you’ve closed in for identification and signaling it’s a lot handier and cheaper to use a cannon than a missile. Just forget about leaving out the cannon!

December 19, 2003 at 9:48 am in reply to: Czech Republic chooses Swedish Gripen fighters over US F-16s #2685927

m.ileduets
Participant

Originally posted by Distiller
What I really think is, that these years — generally speaking — are not ideal for selecting “new” fighters. They should have been waiting until ’06 or ’07 to select a long-term solution instead of going for that interim Gripen now.

I think what you intend to say is that these years are -generally speaking- not really good for selecting American fighters, as the ageing Boeing and LM models obviously have a hard time competing against the new “eurocanards”.
Therefore governments should please wait for the JSF to help create and secure American jobs, isn’t it? 😉

December 19, 2003 at 9:07 am in reply to: King Air comes to the RAF #2685947

m.ileduets
Participant

The PC-12M is more spacious and economical, but it wouldn’t be of any use for the intended multi-engine pilot training, I suppose…:(

December 19, 2003 at 8:57 am in reply to: Malaysian Hawk crash 2 dead.. #2685951

m.ileduets
Participant

The Hawk in Swiss service saw 19’500 flight hours in 12 years with just one accident in 1990 over the Aletsch- glacier; this was in the year of its phasing in.
All in all they had a very good record here and are seemingly still in excellent condition. Wanna buy some?

December 18, 2003 at 9:53 am in reply to: Czech Republic chooses Swedish Gripen fighters over US F-16s #2686990

m.ileduets
Participant

Well he sort of raised the impression that they only have subsonic airplanes for air defence at the moment, but never mind…
I’ m glad the little Swedish plane will be a more frequent sight in Central Europe.

December 18, 2003 at 9:32 am in reply to: Czech Republic chooses Swedish Gripen fighters over US F-16s #2687014

m.ileduets
Participant

Originally posted by F-18 Hamburger
hooray? well at least they got something other than subsonic ALCAs for air defense, fortunately they don’t border unstable or hostile eastern european countries.

I doubt that their Mig-21 were subsonic, yet obsolete, I agree. For air policing the 12 Gripens might just be enough.

December 18, 2003 at 9:23 am in reply to: Czech Republic chooses Swedish Gripen fighters over US F-16s #2687030

m.ileduets
Participant

Congratulations for a courageous decision! I’m glad they didn’t give in to political pressure from the Bush-ites. This might be a signal for other nations to follow.

December 17, 2003 at 5:27 pm in reply to: The most beautiful air-pics. #2687581

m.ileduets
Participant

@Indian1973: No Tubolev, but a rather rare shot, and beautiful im my opinion: (The Mirage IIIRS today had its last flight) 🙁

Picture from http://www.goatworks.com

December 17, 2003 at 2:06 pm in reply to: Czech ranking #2687756

m.ileduets
Participant

Since Austria isn’t part of Nato, their insistence that the Nato doesn’t fly Gripen (or EF by all means yet) wouldn’t have made a big impression on them.
I wonder how ambassador Craig Stapleton will feel about promoting the JSF, as it is no doubt not flown by NATO and doesn’t have any combat experience either…;)
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