Posted on 02/19/2014 9:23:16 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
Europe's Largest Defense Program Looks to Middle East and Asia for Sales
The decision by Germany to cancel a multibillion-euro order for Eurofighter Typhoon jets on Wednesday leaves Europe's largest defense program even more reliant on a shrinking band of potential buyers in the Middle East and Asia.
Germany had initially pledged to buy up to 250 of the advanced fighters but, like others in the four-nation consortium that funded the jet, has opted to cut orders because of domestic budget pressures.
The makers of the Eurofighter, including BAE Systems BA.LN -0.18% PLC, Airbus Group EADSY -0.88% NV DICO.AE -0.42% and Finmeccanica FNC.MI -1.77% SpA, hope to win orders from countries including Saudi Arabia and Malaysia to keep their production lines going beyond 2018.
BAE said Wednesday that it had secured a long-awaited deal with Saudi Arabia on the final pricing of 72 Typhoons ordered in 2007, raising hopes for a follow-on deal for more aircraft.
The Eurofighter consortium is waging an intense battle for overseas orders with jets made by Lockheed Martin Corp. LMT -0.03% , Boeing Co. BA -1.71% and France's Dassault Aviation SA, AM.FR -1.39% alongside makers of cheaper fighters such as Sweden's Saab SAAB-B.SK +0.67% AB, which last year beat its larger rivals to win a $4.5 billion order from Brazil.
Germany and the U.K. originally planned to each buy 250 Eurofighters, but have steadily reduced their commitments and alongside partners Italy and Spain agreed in 2009 to split their final orders into two tranches.
Stéphane Beemelmans, Germany's deputy defense minister, told a parliamentary meeting on Wednesday that Germany has canceled the second tranche of 37 jets valued at €3.5 billion, according to a parliamentary official who attended the meeting and declined to be identified. A government official confirmed the decision
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Other than national pride, I cant see why any of those Europeans spend money on jet fighters. Who will they ever fight? The most they will do is provide a token contribution to wars of convenience like Libya so they can have the USA do the heavy lifting.
It doesn’t look like a bad aircraft at all, but it on par with some of the new stuff like the F-35
(stop laughing, yes I was kidding)
Eh? Why did you even bring up Libya? Of all conflicts, that one was prosecuted mostly by European countries, mainly Britain and France. The US just dumped a load of ordnance on Libya in the opening stages and then left it to us to actually defeat Gaddafi...
“(stop laughing, yes I was kidding)”
Some people refer to the F-35 as JSF - Just So Failed.
http://www.ausairpower.net/jsf.html
They should never have stopped making the F-22. Maybe they could have just made a smaller, single-engine version instead of designing a whole new plane by committee.
Remember the F-111 was supposed to be a fighter jet.
Maybe its the Windows Vista of jets
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