Merkel – dangerous? How do work that out Beny? She’s the only one who seems to have any understanding about what’s happening.

I imagine Putin would argue a case that the unconstitutional overthrow of the elected President nullified any treaty obligations from 1994 in that the protection of Russian interests was paramount.

Indeed.

And there is lots of hysteria in many quarters.

“The Russians are coming!”

A sober look at the facts surrounding this affair shows this to be far from the actual facts.

Not only Merkel, but Putin has hardly acted like the crazed psychopath, a danger to peace, as many are so keen to try and portray, for some bizarre reason.

It’s part of the EU’s expansionist agenda!!

And of course because Europe and the UK in particular has cocked up its energy policy in hock to AGW, we need Russian gas, which flows through Ukraine.

Indeed.

A brief look at a map such as this, and you can understand Russia’s fears completely.

Then, add David Camerons recent, injudicious remarks…..

David Cameron has said the EU should extend its membership deeper into the former Soviet Union, calling for its borders to run from the Atlantic to the Urals.
The prime minister made clear that he hoped the enlargement of the EU would go further and extend beyond the three Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
“Britain has always supported the widening of the EU. Our vision of the EU is that it should be a large trading and co-operating organisation that effectively stretches, as it were, from the Atlantic to the Urals. We have a wide vision of Europe and we have always encouraged countries that want to join.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/01/eu-extend-soviet-union-david-cameron

Just, for a moment, think about that. To the Urals. But not beyond, apparently.

A400M isn’t an EU project. The majority of EU members aren’t participants, including two major countries, Italy & Poland. Airbus & BAe don’t control EU industrial policy.

:highly_amused:

Chief executive praised as aircraft maker jettisons ideology to emerge as ‘normal commercial company’

Europe’s plane maker Airbus has defied its staunchest critics to claim global primacy, a shining example of what European nations can achieve together under the right market philosophy.
The newly minted Airbus Group has taken flight on global bourses since New Year under its own name and in rude good health, trading by the symbol of AIR in Paris and Frankfurt.

The European Aeronautic Defence and Space (Milan: SPA.MI – news) company (EADS (Berlin: AIR.BE – news) ) is no more, a relic from an earlier era of grand political ambitions and trophy projects.

Chief executive Tom Enders said Airbus is at last a “normal commercial company”, liberated from meddling by fractious governments. The former German paratroop officer with a no-nonsense style has won acclaim from investors, if not from trade unions.

The relaunch of Europe’s industrial champion under the Airbus brand caps a year of bitter-sweet success. Orders of big commercial jets topped 1,400 in 2013. They will probably prove the highest ever when results are released next week, pulling well ahead of rival Boeing (NYSE: BA – news) at 1,074.

The Airbus share price rose 90pc last year as the company captured the full force of 7pc annual growth in global air passenger traffic.

The boom is driven almost entirely by Asia and the Middle East. Malaysia’s low-cost carrier AirAsia (Kuala Lumpur: 5099.KL – news) alone has outstanding orders for 536 Airbus jets.

Airbus snatched a contract from under Boeing’s nose in Japan a near-impenetrable market for decades winning an order for 31 of its new wide-bodied A350 XWB jets from Japan Airlines (Berlin: JAL.BE – news) .

This was followed in September by a contract from Delta for 40 mid-haul jets, part of a drive to capture market share in the US where Airbus is going native with an assembly plant for A320s in Mobile. Labour and power costs are much cheaper in the US.

Yet Mr Enders’ sweeping shake-up of the scattered Airbus family will lead to 5,800 job cuts in Europe by 2016 and the closure of smaller plants, often sited in remote spots for political reasons without much commercial logic.

He is has insisted on a single headquarters in Toulouse to replace the twin-headed structure meant to symbolise Franco-German parity, and quietly buried the strategic pretensions of the old guard. Gone are plans to build a defence conglomerate fit for a superpower, with an arbitrary target of 50pc sales from military kit.

The collapse of Europe’s defence budgets has seen to that. Mr Enders tried to revive the defence arm with a proposed £28bn merger of EADS and BAE Systems (LSE: BA.L – news) in 2012 but this was blocked by Berlin in an attempt to protect German defence interests, a low point in political interference that appears to have shaken everybody to their senses.

France and Germany agreed last March to cut their “national” stakes in the company to 12pc each, ensuring that the company will no longer be “a puppet on the string of any government”, in Mr Enders’ caustic words. Spain’s share falls to 4pc. Politicians will be kept at bay unless national security is involved. The defence operations are no longer playing their old role as a stabiliser, helping to offset the ups and downs of the commercial jet cycle. Eurofighter has been bedevilled by delays and rescinded orders.

Airbus delivered its first A400m military transport plane to the French air force in September, but the venture has been costly. A much-coveted contract from the Pentagon was scuppered by Congress, suspicious of explicit links between EADS and the EU political project.

Under the revamp, Airbus Commercial Aircraft will be the central pillar, accounting for two thirds of revenue.

The defence unit Cassidian and the Astrium satellite operations will be combined into Airbus Defence & Space based in Munich, with a third unit under Airbus Helicopters.

The reforms have won high praise from Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst from the Teal Group in Washington and virulent critic for years. “The bad old days of management by deranged political hacks are over. Airbus is a far more focused company. It has made tremendous improvements,” he said.

The irony is that Airbus is now achieving what Europe’s idealists always dreamed of, a cutting-edge company with world-beating products that binds France, Germany, Britain, and Spain together, drawing on the strengths of each national industry. But it has done it by embracing the market and ridding itself of ideology.

In a reversal of roles, it is Boeing that is now on the back foot, plagued by layers of management with too few engineers, seemingly unwilling to listen to expert staff. The worldwide fleet of the 787 Dreamliner already badly delayed was grounded in January for four months after a battery caught fire in Boston.

Boeing has fought back with the launch of its 777X, amassing orders worth $95bn (£58bn). The duopoly in global aerospace remains, with challenges from China, Russia and Brazil fading, but Airbus has the edge.

Even the superjumbo A380 is proving less of an albatross than feared. Emirates has ordered another 50 jets, much loved by long-haul passengers. The project has come back from the dead, and should break even by 2015.

Airbus success is percolating though to the British operations, which employ 17,500 and support 135,000 jobs with contractors. The UK plants emerge relatively unscathed from the shake-up. There will be 700 job cuts, some in research, others at Astrium operations near Portsmouth as Airbus struggles with a price war in the cut-throat global market for satellites.

The wings for Airbus jets increasingly made of high-tech resins are designed at Filton near Bristol. They are built at Broughton in north Wales, then shipped by river to Mostyn harbour, and from there to France.

There were fears that Britain would lose this vital part of the UK’s engineering base after BAE sold its 20pc share in EADS seven years ago, reducing London’s political leverage and therefore the British “workshare” in new projects as well.

The danger has subsided. Mr Enders’ refusal to bow to politics has effectively secured the UK operations, so long as they compete on cost and skill. There is no longer anything to fear. “An Airbus without wings would just be a bus,” he said.

Let’s not be naive about this.
The above is basically a public relations excercise.
Political meddling and lobbying will remain as before.
This goes without speaking.

There are hundreds of such articles, including wikileaks that detail EU governmental and ministerial lobbying for Airbus.
Just some of these below….

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/revamped-airbus-lives-european-dream-200023917.html

European ministers say they will continue to provide investment support to Airbus despite opposition from Boeing and the USA.

Speaking at the Airbus ministers event at Farnborough, the ministers responsible for the civil aerospace industries of the UK, France, Germany and Spain say the “repayable launch investment” support they give to Airbus passed the World Trade Organisation (WTO) appeals process.

They also say that the countries are putting measures into place to comply with other WTO rulings.

In attendance were the UK’s minister for business and enterprise Mark Prisk, Peter Hintze German parliamentary secretary in the ministry of economics and technology, Frédéric Cuvillier, France’s minister for transport, sea and fisheries and Luis Valero, Spanish secretary general for industry and SMEs.

“The WTO case has gone quite positively for Europe“, the ministers say, adding that it should lead to a “negotiated amicable solution”.

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/farnborough-european-ministers-see-airbus-wto-ruling-374123/

The European Union
continues to lobby aggressively for Airbus, most recently by
sending a strongly-worded letter to the Prime Minister urging
him to complete the Airbus purchase immediately (full text in
para 8). End Summary.

http://dazzlepod.com/cable/10KATHMANDU163/

The Airbus Group has strengthened its UK government relations team with the recent appointments of Simon Astley as head of government affairs for Airbus Helicopters UK, and Tom Page as public affairs manager for Airbus in the UK. Simon will be responsible for all government and political contact for Airbus Helicopters in the UK, liaising on issues ranging from civil resilience, to oil and gas and the defence market. Before joining Airbus Helicopters, Simon was head of public affairs at Balfour Beatty, working across the energy and transport sectors, and before that spent ten years with BAE Systems, latterly as director of parliamentary relations. Over the course of his career, Simon has strong relationships with MPs and parliamentary figures, providing advice on a broad range of complex political matters. Tom has joined Airbus in the UK to work as part of Katherine Bennett’s team in London and will provide support on parliamentary relations. Tom began his career in Westminster, working with a number of Labour Members of Parliament. After the 2010 General Election, he joined Interel as a senior political consultant within their defence and security practice, providing intelligence and regular defence briefings for their wide base of UK and US defence clients. “I am delighted to welcome Simon and Tom to the Airbus Group. We have a significant presence in the UK, with more than 17,000 employees, and we are keen to ensure our stakeholders in Government and Whitehall are aware of the considerable contribution we make to the country,” commented Robin Southwell, president of Airbus Group UK. “With this in mind, I am sure both Simon and Tom’s extensive experience will be a fantastic asset to the Group.” “Airbus Group encapsulates what it means to be a great pan-European company. We make world-leading products, employ highly skilled people and spend c£500 million per year, in the UK alone, on research and development. We are proud of our achievements and want to continue to effectively communicate the Airbus Group story to all of our stakeholders.” – See more at: http://www.birchwoodknight.co.uk/news-article/airbus-adds-to-lobbying-team-344#sthash.rxVgc0eo.dpuf

http://www.birchwoodknight.co.uk/news-article/airbus-adds-to-lobbying-team-344

THE UK boss of aerospace firm Airbus has argued against the case for Britain distancing itself from Europe.

Robin Southwell has voiced concerns over the possibility of the UK leaving the European Union (EU), saying its success to date would not have been achieved without effective partnerships with countries across the English Channel.

The Franco-German company, which employs 17,000 workers in Britain including 4,000 at a large base in Filton, is the latest large foreign investor to say it favours Britain continuing its membership of the 28-member trading bloc.

At a company event today Tues, Mr Southwell said: “Airbus Group, we note, would never have achieved its success to date without a working and effective partnership of countries and companies within Europe, which only collectively can deliver the scale required to be globally successful.

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Airbus-boss-warns-Britain-quitting-EU/story-20473389-detail/story.html

In my opinion, these events have basically killed the Antonov An-70.

Any leaning toward the EU will see the “competitor” ensuring it gets destroyed.

In this scenario, Antonov itself will probably disappear eventually, after some scraps being thrown toward them initially.

Let’s not be naive about this.

Well, IMHO, of course.

Taurus cant be exported in more than 250 kms range(regulations) or did i miss a point?

There are other options of which a certain amount of work has been done exceeding 250 km’s, if Brazil is willing to sign up to another country’s programme ala A-Darter, if you know what I mean.

bottom of this infographic published these days here in one of our biggest newspapers. [ATTACH=CONFIG]223995[/ATTACH]

Comments?

Hammer

Thank goodness there is at least one accurate piece of artwork out there depicting the A-Darter on the tip pylons.
The other artwork out there shows the Iris-T, which Brazil does not operate, and hasn’t ordered either.

I said on another forum that I’m not surprised.

There were a couple of pointers to a Saab win.

Firstly, the Rafale is a little too large to operate comfortably off the Sao Paulo, if indeed Brazil do go the route of replacing the Skyhawk.
A follow on carrier, if ever realised, will likely not be larger than Sao Paulo.

Brazil have bought into Denels A-Darter missile, which is cleared on the Gripen.
Denel has just helped build a factory in Brazil to manufacture the A-Darter, and service is expected in 2014.
Brazil has expressed interest in Denels BVRAAM, and may eventually buy into that like they did with A-Darter.

Embraers R-99 AEW&C uses Saabs Erieye radar.

So, investment in articles already cleared on Gripen, or manufactured by the same company, by Brazil always pointed in a certain direction to me.

Rafale is overkill for Brazils needs, considering what the neighbours operate.

Gripen NG is a very capable platform, but uses one engine instead of 2, with all the cost, fuel, and maintenance advantages that this entails.

Gerry Adams is selected as part of the “Guard of Honour” for Nelson Mandelas coffin.

Nothing really more to add to that…

http://www.thejournal.ie/gerry-adams-guard-of-honour-nelson-mandela-1222286-Dec2013/