Discussion seem to be very advanced with Saudi Arabia for integration on their Tornado IDS, do you think it’s opening a gate for integration on Typphoon?

I woud like to answer about paveway iv and aasm future capabilities (check post in rafale thread)to jon lake on another forum, but i cant even find any register forum

good thing. that is necessary if they are to consolidate any sort of peace.
i suspect the french are working overtime to get Tuareg groups on board (and government in line with that),
if it works out they should be good allies to defeat the remnants of AQIM/fundamentalist militants in the area.

I hope so either. I’m quite confident that it will work for a time, on the long term?
A political solution is to be found for Touareg, but i dont see any apart of an international status, as they are nomads (very different from Kurds as i could read here and there). Another problem is that Azawad is not only populated by touareg, but also “maures” (arabic), some black poeple with touareg culture (cant remember the name), Peuls…
On the other hand, Mali is one of the very african states to have a coherent hstory (Mali kingdom and Songhaï empire), that may simplify things

No, thats why i said rumoured, heard from ppl that stayed in Al Dhafra for a while.

Btw,

Lockheed F-35 Head to Retire

Tom Burbage is to retire acording to aviation week

That is a very simplistic way of looking at things.

In India the two aircraft the Indians believed met their requirements were the Rafale and EF. The Indians selected what they believed to be the cheaper of the two.

The same thing happened in Switzerland. The Swiss believed three aircraft met their requirements, and chose the cheapest, the Gripen.

Meanwhile Korea, Singapore, Japan, Morocco, and the UAE, selected F-15s, F-16s or F-35s over European competition. Naturally around here all of -those- deals are seen as political. (Or there are -rumors- that one plane or another really “won” even though it wasn’t selected.)

In India the ONLY 2 aircrafts that MET (not believed to meet) were eurocanards, not FTeens (eliminated)

In Korea, press released Rafale tech eval was ahead of F15.

Morocco, big mess, french deficiency

UAE, selected F16 ahead of what? Tell me the story please.

In switzerland, Gripen did not meet swiss air force requirements but still was chosen.

UAE bought M2K-9 (which are rumoured by airmen there as being way preferred to Block 60 by emirati pilots), Saudi Arabia and Oman bought Typhoons.

According to Flightglobal,

Reduced F-35 performance specifications may have significant operational impact

As i dont know exactly forum policy here i wont post link to full article, everyone can take a look

This is not very intersting it is just plain BS, I don’t know if it is just a sign of ignorance or the colonel is in complete bad faith.
Anyway this officer shows no respect for the 52 Italian casulaties and the 56 German casualties who died in A-stan since the start of the operations, let alone for the military efforts of the involved Countries.

I invite the “many oserving from the sidelines” to find better sources on that conflict.

RETIRED colonel

Yves Debay shot

Yves Debay, the author of the article about french special forces was shot in Syria by a sniper 01/17.
RIP

No swerve, Sevare was (and is again i guess) to become a “camp bastion”