FRENCH BANNED FROM PROMOTING EUROFIGHTER: REPORT Received Sunday, 28 November 2004 00:39:00 GMT
LONDON, Nov 28 (AFP) - French nationals have been banned from helping to promote the Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft to potential foreign customers, the Business newspaper reported Sunday.
It said government ministers from Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain -- the four nations involved in the project -- agreed to bar all "non-partner" nationals from export promotion jobs in a letter to contractors in October.
Though France is not participating in Eurofighter directly, it has a role through the European aerospace group EADS, whose shareholders include the French state and defence contractor Lagardere.
"Britain is behind the controversial move to ban the French," The Business said.
"While the letter does not explicitly refer to them ... the bar is aimed squarely at the French and may be waived for nationals of other countries such as Singapore."
Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain have ordered a total of 620 Eurofighters for their air forces, while Austria has ordered 18 of the twin-engined, delta-winged aircraft.
The Business said that potential Eurofighter buyers include Australia, Canada, Gulf states, India, Switzerland and South American countries. It added that Singapore "may order at least 20 Typhoons, and Turkey about 60".
I find this rather amusing, for the reason that why would the French want to market the Eurofighter? After all, isn't the Rafale the super-duper hot shit ultimate multi-role fighter in the world? (at least that's what the French say)
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What I don't understand is the Brits. I mean, if the French want to help me promote our aircraft, I see no reason for them not to spring at it and say "See, even the French admit the Euro is a better fighter!"
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LordShaithis wrote:So how do the Euro, Rafale, and Raptor stack up?
Rafale and the Eurofighter are roughly comparable, though while Eurofighter has won several export orders; Rafale has been beaten out in every competition it has entered, and sometimes by aircraft, which are much older designs like the F-15. The Raptor is above in a class, both performance and cost wise, completely of its own.
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LordShaithis wrote:So how do the Euro, Rafale, and Raptor stack up?
Rafale and the Eurofighter are roughly comparable, though while Eurofighter has won several export orders; Rafale has been beaten out in every competition it has entered, and sometimes by aircraft, which are much older designs like the F-15. The Raptor is above in a class, both performance and cost wise, completely of its own.
Aren't they intended as much as export fighters as for domestic use? Rather like the F-16 vs the F-15 were for the US. And like the JSF is supposed to be.
Stormbringer wrote:
Aren't they intended as much as export fighters as for domestic use?
Not really, they where both designed to meet the requirements of the respective builder nations, there was no alterations to the requirements specifically to earn export orders. But it was of course always hoped and expected that some would be won.
Rather like the F-16 vs the F-15 were for the US. And like the JSF is supposed to be.
The F-16 was designed to suit USAF requirements, though most export aircraft have been customized in various ways besides just stripping classified parts out. The F-35 is a different story, since a number of the countries which it will be exported to have signed on and are providing some development funding, in exchange for influence on the design.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
Though the colossal fuck-ups in management, the problem of parties dropping out, then coming back, or cutting some good feature out to save costs and just the fact that the Soviet Union fell one afternoon in '91 means that the EFA is just not what it could have been. Though with the lack of a communist superpower, most don't see the need for a superplane anyway, hence one of the major arguments against the F/A-22 which had a similar bumpy history.
