Just business. Most of the Gripen engine is American, & some other parts, so they’d get some money from it.

Yeah right… ‘just’ business.

Where’s Nic when we need him, he’s into Conspiracy Theories, isn’t he.

:dev2:

I have already voiced my opinion that the gulf states use these contract promises to milk as much political advantage they can from weakish french & britsh governments, once they have milked it enough (fe by managing to have france open a military base in the EAU), they make the same kind of empty promises to the brits. Don’t know what they will get from it, but they will probably get some, and then they’ll probably talk about F35 and see what they can extort from washington.

The way the french government behave with such countries is appalling. Remember how kadhafi humiliated sarkozy during his visit in Paris for the sale of a token force of Rafales which were never sold anyway? French politicians are slime who bend over at the first occasion.

Nic

It all depends on the load out. An aircraft with a large internal fuel load and internal bays pays a penalty when compared to a clean or very lightly loaded 4th generation jet, but if you compare a Rafale with tanks, bombs, and pods carried externally to an F-35 with an internal load then the F-35 will win easily. Obviously during the course of a mission a 4th generation jet can expect to drop some of it external ordnance/fuel but can be expected to retain things like targeting pods, pylons, CFTs, and at least some missiles.

I suspect that if the Rafale receives weapons pods they will be retained except in emergency situations, if they are jettisonable at all. This means that the Rafale would be trading aerodynamic performance for stealth, which may make good sense, but the penalty a Rafale (or Super Hornet) would pay to carry a stealthy pod is greater than that of the F-35, which was designed to carry loads internally from the start.

Trade off that can be erased by dismounting the pods. The fact that you can dismount the pods for all the missions where it is not required and for training means your plane will cost you MUCH less in operating cost over its service life. If only in fuel costs.

Nic

Papier mâché comes in handy when some western countries decide to bomb all your stocks.

Nic

Nicolas10. It would help if you could quote something or someone to support your speculation. perhaps something else they bought where the aid money was only given if that platform was bought

Do you have any issues with the word maybe? I can’t and won’t prove anything either way and neither can you. Yet you are so sure and when I write “maybe” you’re still unhappy?

Grow up.

Nic

Well my collection is pretty huge (well over 100 models total…scales 1:144, 1:72, 1:48, and 1:32 primarily…might be another odd scale or two in there), but I’ve been building them since I was a kid, and so even the earliest ones I did, I still have for the most part. The vast majority of my collection is in a pair of huge plastic bins. Recently, I used the third bedroom in my home to make an office or study, and I decided to give it an aviation theme. Kind of a “me” room you know? (Wife gets the rest of the house to decorate so I wanted the one room at least…ha ha)

Anyways, my current “collection” is now largely what I will hang from the ceiling in that room. I currently have the following (all in 1:48) hanging from my ceiling:

MiG-29 Fulcrum-A (Russia)
F/A-18C Hornet (USN)
Tornado F.3 (RAF)
Tornado GR.1 (RAF)
NF-5A Freedom Fighter (Norway)
MiG-21bis Fishbed-L (Russia)
F-4F Phantom II (Germany)
F-102A Delta Dagger (USAF)
MiG-19S Farmer-C (Russia)
Hunter F.6 (RAF)
F-84G Thunderjet (USAF)
U-2C Dragon Lady (USAF)
UH-1B Iroquois (U.S. Army)
Bf-109G (Luftwaffe)
Bf-110G (Luftwaffe)
Ju-87D (Luftwaffe)
P-40C Warhawk (AVG aka Flying Tigers)

It’s a relatively small room so I don’t really have too much more room, but my next three projects are a Mirage IIICJ, MiG-25 Foxbat, and A-7D Corsair II.

This post is worthless without pics.

By the way, if my memory is right, the Flying Tigers never had a P40C. They had P40Bs with some mods that made them virtually like a P40C, but no P40C (although don’t quote me on this because it’s something way back in my memory, and I don’t remember where I’ve read it).

Nic

There is a deficit because the PRIVATE banks that constitute the FED actually take a percentage for every dollar it freely prints, & yet another percentage when they loan that dollar they made out of thin air.

Nic