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Why not a French offer of 90 Rafales to Germany with production rights?
Why not a French offer of 90 Rafales to Germany with production rights?
Eurofighter Typhoon - Updates and Discussions
- Thread starter Ashwin
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I'd understand not going for it in favour of more Typhoons, but what I don't understand is why the Rafale isn't in the competition in the first place. Only the F-15, SH, F-35 and Typhoon were involved.
And have they revealed why they didn't go for the F-35 but kept the SH?
German pride.
They've already conceded the lead nation role in the SCAF, don't ask them to weaken their negotiating position even more. If they can upgrade the Typhoon into a working Tornado replacement, they'll demonstrate their industry's capacity in the aeronautical sector. If they buy the Rafale instead, they'll demonstrate a lack of confidence in their own industry, and that's just inconceivable for a country like Germany, because what else have they got? Industrial products represent 75% of Germany's exports, and exports represent half of their GDP. In fact, the real question would be about why did they even look at American jets in the first place.
The Germans will never buy a Rafale, they didn't even ask questions about it, whereas they did for the F-15, F-18 and F-35. The Typhoon was not necessary because they had the answers.
They are too proud to admit that the Rafale corresponds better to their needs than the Typhoon, buying Rafale would be to recognize a failure of the Typhoon program which would be bad for exports
I heard the reptilians banned them from buying the Rafale because Spectra would interfere with their invasion plans.
I talked about that with a german journalist in defense2 years ago. Germany is an eurofighter country.And US would ever allow us to ger B-61 codes. Their mybe some german F-18, i dunno.
Couldn't the French make a hostile offer? It can be done directly through Macron as part of the Common Defence strategy. Perhaps even link it to SCAF with an offer of jointly developing future capabilities for the Rafale and SCAF.
Germany may be a Eurofighter country, but that doesn't mean the Typhoon will actually meet the Tornado's requirements. German AF is not stupid enough to choose Typhoon if the Rafale exceeds the Typhoon and Tornado in strike capabilities.
Is it possible for France to share some of their nukes instead? The ASMP-A will obviously give them a far better strike capability over the B61. If I recall, excess ASMPs are already available. Or France can reintroduce some German specific gravity nukes, it's not going to be very expensive. This will significantly reduce US's hold on the Germans and this works in French favour also.
But it's not them who choose; it's the politicians. Germany's entire raison d'être being industrial exports, they won't import the main competitor to one of their flagship products.
Keep in mind that Germany does not care to have a functional military. In the German mind, the military is there just to serve as a shop window to let other countries see what the German defense industry is selling. Nothing more. Which is why they never bother to buy things such as spare parts, that's expensive and, for German purposes, useless. They don't need their aircraft to fly, let alone be useful; they just need to sell them.
Yes, of course, however it wouldn't replace the thing they have going on with the USA, so they'd need to cancel that one separately.
Politically, German public opinion is very hostile to nuclear anything, so a new nuclear sharing deal would be hard to sell. The one with the US is old and not very publicized, they just don't like to talk about it so as to avoid the general public becoming aware of it.
TBH, those bombs are 99% likely to be delivered by US aircraft anyway. They could perhaps be replaced with IRBMs now that the INF is defunct anyway.
TBH I'm happy taht Germany stays firm on choosing a european product. It is not (due to history i guess) their policy to "enter first" in a AD net, which is one of the 2 strongpoints of F-35.
If youi read carefully latest ranco/german accord in Aix la Chapelle, there is a weird formulation. Military help "BY ANY MEANS" is one of the countries is agressed.
I guess it's a start. But the SH also has to follow the F-35 for this to happen.
Hardly the same thing given the French contingent of Canada. And Canada has no domestic fighter in the race.