MigBuster 2,884 Posted July 13, 2017 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-germany-defence-idUSKBN19Y1FJ?il=0 PARIS (Reuters) - France and Germany unveiled plans on Thursday to develop a European fighter jet, burying past rivalries as part of a raft of measures to tighten defense and security cooperation. http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/12438/france-and-germany-want-to-build-their-own-5th-generation-fighter-jet The complete Franco-German fighter jet plan reportedly calls for a combination of manned and unmanned aircraft to ultimately replace France’s Dassault Rafales and Germany’s Eurofighter Typhoons. The two countries will come up with a shared “roadmap” by the middle of 2018, but there is not a clear time frame for when the new aircraft could or should enter production or be ready for combat. Results in 30 years...................! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+76.IAP-Blackbird 3,557 Posted July 13, 2017 Maybe a F-35 for europe ... should be ready in 30 years Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MigBuster 2,884 Posted July 14, 2017 LOL..........dont laugh too hard because the last one we rolled out appeared to be not much more than a twin engined F-16...........<cough>.........rolling into squadrons the same time as the Raptor. Still at least that one started with radar...........I remember the one before (Tornado F.2) starting life with Ballast in the nose. If it is gong to emulate the F-35 program I can only see smooth sailing all the way Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Toryu 156 Posted July 20, 2017 The problem with the european programs is that they're mostly about keeping the engineering-capabilities alive, rather than getting the most bang per buck or making the most fiscal sense. The result is a committee-airplane that can do a bit of everything, but excells nowhere and nobody gets an airplane that fits their needs entirely. But it was cheap (sort of). Yay! France would have the industrial oomph (but not the ca$h) to build their own airplane. Dassault has always built great 80/20 aircraft. Germany, however, doesn't - our aerospace companies have been merged into oblivion and are nowadays basicly Airbus Defence and Space and rely on other branches of AD&S. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JediMaster 451 Posted July 21, 2017 Right, many Euro projects have been jobs and R&D programs with a final system as almost an afterthought. Often seems to be about national pride (look what we made/what's our workshare) more than about what their militaries really need or could use. That said, their systems cost far less. So for only double (or triple, or more) the price, the US gets a small jobs and large corporate subsidy program along with a final system. Or, the respective countries could simply put all those workers on the payroll for like $50k to do nothing and it would cost 90% less. A military weapons program is the LEAST effective way to keep citizens employed that can really be imagined. It's a lousy justification yet it always gets used. "Supports X jobs!" For $50 billion? You could support 10X jobs easily for that much. Especially as with time these programs cost more and more while the number of actual workers utilized drops as automation takes over. It's the 2014 Toyota Camry! For $20,000! Supports over 10,000 jobs! It's the 2015 Toyota Camry! For $40,000! Supports over 1000 jobs! It's the 2016 Toyota Camry! For $60,000! Supports over 200 jobs! If ever a swamp needed draining, it's in military procurement regulations and oversight. This pattern should NOT be acceptable OR legal. There are equal parts incompetence and corruption joining forces to milk the taxpayers of as much money as they can manage while providing equipment that just barely meets the needs of the services. I mean, look at the widespread hypoxia issues in numerous planes across all the services. We've had oxygen systems on planes since WWII, what is the big difficulty here? This isn't some revolutionary new tech, it's a basic system that should be as reliable as wheels not flying off on landing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites