Greece signed a 2.3 billion-euro ($2.8 billion) deal with France on Monday to purchase 18 Rafale fighter jets, as tensions remain high with neighbor Turkey.
Florence Parly, the French defense minister, signed the agreement in Athens to deliver 12 used and six new aircraft built by Dassault Aviation over two years, starting in July.
Parly said the 12 new aircraft would be built to the latest F3R standard. She added, “We sold 18 Rafales to Greece so it is indeed 18 Rafales that Dassault will have to produce.” Speaking at the factory, the defense minister said one Rafale would come off the production line per month..
The French Air and Space Force will have its 12 new aircraft by the end of 2025. Together with the 28 Rafales that Dassault is to deliver between 2022 and 2024, this will bring the total to 129, as projected in the 2019-2025 military program law.
Kartik wrote:So now the USAF may well order more F-16s, almost 16 years after the last F-16 was delivered to the USAF.
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Models in contention for the deal are the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon, Lockheed Martin F-35A, and Saab Gripen E/F.
“With the request for best and final offer, each tenderer is requested to compile the information provided in the previous tenders and negotiations into a final and binding package,” it adds.
The Finnish parliament has already approved €9.4 billion ($11.4 billion) in funding to acquire replacements for the nation’s current F/A-18C/Ds.
“The HX options of each tenderer differ as to the costs of introduction into service, construction needs and integration into the defence system,” the logistics command says. “This is why each tenderer will be given a tenderer-specific price limit, and, in addition, a similar option will be included for each tenderer for later purchases and contractual changes. Therefore, the price ceiling set for each tenderer is about €9 billion.”
Helsinki says it is using four criteria to judge the candidates: military capability; security of supply; industrial participation; and costs. “Security and defence policy implications will be assessed separately outside of the actual tendering process,” it adds.
A type selection will be forwarded for government approval before year-end, with the new model due to enter service from 2025.
RAF Marham @RAF_Marham wrote:F-35B aircraft from @RAF_Marham conducted essential operational training with Rafale aircraft from French Navy. The training included personnel from the RN School of Fighter Controllers who controlled both sides from @RNAS Yeovilton.
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command @INDOPACOM wrote:A super Hercules provides fuel to a Lightning II aircraft during exercise #CopeNorth 21.
The RAF has backed a British company to develop an aircraft that can be converted from a trainer to a faster, more aggressive jet by swapping out its engines and wings.
Aeralis, based in Suffolk, has been given £200,000 by the force to develop its “revolutionary” modular plane, which it says would be the first fully developed in Britain since the Hawk was launched in 1974.
The two-seater aircraft will have at least three variants based around the same fuselage but fitted with different engine and wing configurations: a basic trainer, a speedier, more manoeuvrable fighter-style plane and a reconnaissance model with long wings and a more efficient engine.
Tristan Crawford, Aeralis chief executive, said the project could help the RAF rationalise its future fleets
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Germany and France are making a new effort to resolve an impasse over the development of a joint fighter jet, Europe’s biggest defence project that has led to tensions between Berlin and Paris, security and industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
At an estimated cost of more than 100 billion euros, the venture brings together Germany, France and Spain to forge a future weapons system that is seen as the heart of a deepening European defence cooperation.
Dassault Aviation <AVMD,PA>, Airbus and Indra are supposed to build the aircraft, which is expected to be operational from 2040 with a view to replacing France’s Rafale and Germany’s Eurofighter warplanes over time.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron kicked off the ambitious venture in 2017, when the EU was rattled by Britain’s decision to leave the bloc and deeply divided over other issues such as the migrant crisis.
But the project has run into difficulties due to mistrust and differing visions between Berlin and Paris as well as corporate infighting over work shares, security and industry sources told Reuters.
At the beginning of February, Merkel and Macron failed to settle the issue, thus leaving open when the next tranche of payments of at least 5 billion euros can be released, according to insiders.
On Wednesday, envoys of the defence ministries of Germany, France, Spain as well as from Dassault, Airbus and Indra met in Paris to try to resolve the impasse, security and industry sources told Reuters.
Part of the controversy revolves around intellectual property rights, and who should possess them in the end.
Before moving ahead with the venture, Germany is trying to gain more concessions from France on the issue, insiders said, adding that Berlin would like to be able to use technologies co-developed with Paris for its own projects.
One French source said Germany also aimed for intellectual property developed at national level in France, something a German source denied.
Disagreements run so deep that there are even considerations to build two demonstrators instead of just one, one source told Reuters.
A senior French parliamentary figure also expressed doubts about the project’s viability, citing diverging approaches and political constraints, such as Berlin’s refusal to participate in combat operations abroad.
“To be honest, it would be a lot easier for us to work with Britain because we share the same military culture,” the MP told Reuters. Britain is running its own fighter jet program, Tempest, with Italy and Sweden.
A planned update for the Franco-German Tiger combat helicopter, costing more than 5.5 billion euros, is another bone of contention.
France is keen on the modernisation, whereas Germany is digging in, with some parts of the military not wanting the upgrade at all given the low operational readiness of the Airbus helicopter, sources told Reuters.
On Thursday, the defence ministers of France and Germany, Florence Parly and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, will have another chance to solve the row, when they are scheduled to meet virtually.
According to the meeting’s summary document, Indonesia plans to buy 36 Rafale and eight F-15EX jets, with six of the latter expected to arrive by 2022.
Along with the new additions, the air force will also modernize its existing combat aircraft this year, Prasetyo said.
Steve Trimble @TheDEWLine wrote:I’m told this is what that Rafale looks like now. I figured it was a tail strike on the high-voltage line, but the pilot must have been in a steep bank maybe? That could have been a lot worse. I also wonder how the Rafale’s electronics survived the impact.
Steve Trimble @TheDEWLine wrote:Another shot has emerged of the damaged French Rafale, which severed a high-voltage power line on a low-altitude flight on Thursday. The pilot and back-seater won the lottery. Just inches from a canopy impact by the live wire.
Aditya_V wrote:Can anyone explain Indonesian plan of acquiring 8 F15EX, why go through separate logtics and training for 8 aircraft. and 5 Su27 and 11 Su30, I guess they would need to retire these 16 aircraft then.
South Korea is set to roll out the first prototype of its indigenously developed next-generation fighter jet, widely known as the Korean Fighter eXperimental (KF-X) aircraft, late next month.
A total of six prototypes are in the final stages of assembly at the Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) headquarters in Sacheon, Gyeongsang Province. Test flights will be carried out next year, following ground testing after the April roll-out.
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