Posted on 12/07/2011 8:17:59 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
France warns of end of Rafale fighter jet production
PARIS: France warned on Wednesday that defence giant Dassault would halt production of its Rafale multirole fighter jet if it remains unable to sell any abroad.
"If Dassault doesn't sell any Rafales abroad, the production line... will be stopped" once France has received the 180 aircraft it has ordered, Defence Minister Gerard Longuet told a small group of journalists including AFP.
France considers the twin-motor delta-wing Rafale a state-of-the-art warplane but has struggled to find any foreign buyers to support the project that has so far cost over 40 billion euros (53 billion dollars).
Longuet said maintenance arrangements would continue for all completed aircraft and that French Rafale orders alone would keep the production line going until 2018 "at least".
Then "it will be over for the manufacturer, not for the user," he said of the plane that has been deployed in NATO operations in Afghanistan and Libya
It is mainly built by Dasault, electronics company Thales and motor manufacturer Snecma, part of the Safran group, but a total of over 1,500 French companies are involved in the programme.
Longuet insisted that the Rafale remained in competition with European manufacturer EADS' Eurofighter Typhoon for a large Indian contract and that "we are in tough negotiations with the United Arab Emirates".
However, the UAE, which was said to be in final talks with France to buy 60 Rafales, said last month that the French offer was unworkable and uncompetitive.
A US cable leaked by Wikileaks in 2010 quoted King Hamad of Bahrain as mocking the Rafale as "yesterday's technology".
Switzerland in November became the latest country to choose another fighter over the Rafale, opting for the Swedish-made Saab Gripen to replace its ageing fleet.
The Rafale and Typhoon are in
(Excerpt) Read more at channelnewsasia.com ...
If you don’t do what I say I’ll shoot myself in the head. That’ll show you.
Just what India wants to hear as they choose between the Rafale and the Eurofighter.
That isn’t a warning, it’s just good business.
If you cannot sell them ,why make them ?
Since production will be running full-tilt until 2018, it seems odd to announce in effect, “If nobody buys this turkey we’ll have to stop making it.” I think he’s hurt the French marketing effort, if not killed it.
The King of Bahrain’s statements about “unworkable…uncompetitive…” etc. might translate into, “You know, I really like this thing but I want a better price.” Perhaps the French need to sweeten the deal with a huge discount on a couple of their commercial aircraft. (Bribes, called baksheesh in Bahrain, work too.)
What a ....well...canard...
Does it have auto surrender capability?
ping
"If Dassault doesn't sell any Rafales abroad, the production line... will be stopped""If we can't sell it we can't make it." Well, duh. For anyone else this is not so much naive economics as an immutable law of physics. Only for a European would that formula be a problem. But we're catching up with our European friends. The Chevy Volt springs to mind.
Dang some people are so funny!
Revives my hope in humanity.
For what it’s worth, I think this has nothing to do with prospective customers but rather is a warning to Dassault Aviation. Dassault negotiators were criticised for being intransigent on cost-sharing by the UAE despite lobbying by the French government. I’d assume the message here is there is no possibility of additional orders or sops for their combat aircraft division.
The only thing India would be contributing to either the Typhoon or Rafale would be additional manufacturing capacity and plenty of funds. In this regard, the Rafale makes more sense for India since it’s almost attained full multi-role configuration unlike the Eurofighter.
The most a large customer like India or Brazil could gain out of such deals would be new electronics or propulsion technology.
So what exactly does Bahrain have or can buy that is “today's technology”? F-22?
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They have the US Navy’s fifth fleet.
A last ditch Russian attempt to throw a monkey wrench on the MMRCA deal. lol
Weird to see the Russians talking of being sensitive to social issues when they are still the largest arms supplier to India by volume!!
I think we could take an alterate view to the raft of ‘anti’-MMRCA reports coming out in the past few weeks. There’s a possibility of the Indian government/MOD activating its contacts to essentially warn EADS/Dassault to be flexible on pricing or risk cancellation given delicate political equations.
The risk of cancellation remains very remote and would only happen if there’s a catastrophic economic meltdown in India or if the two vendors won’t budge. By choosing the closely-priced products, the MOD has in theory ensured that the L-1 bidder (supposed to be announced soon) will still be willing to negotiate hard in the price negotiation phase.
As far as alternatives go-buying a new product would still take time and without a competition may attract criticism. More SU-30s or Mirages may be the only option in such a scenario.
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