EADS Loses Massive Contract: India Opts For French Fighter Jets

[sysop]

French defense manufacturer Dassault has beat EADS for the right to negotiate exclusively with the Indian government on the sale of 126 fighter jets. Still, the deal could ultimately collapse -- in the past, all other talks to sell Dassault's Rafale aircraft abroad have failed.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...812714,00.html

[Gerard]

"Besides, who's ever even heard of the Rafale fighter jet? "

BUT HEY, SIR, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

You may have no idea about military aviation, but thank God thousands of experts around the world have some knowledge about the competitive landscape, they may prefer one airplane or manufacturer but they respect their competitors. For any single military sale in today's world, a long and balanced dissertation could be written exploring the details of what went and what went wrong. This is true for the Rafale as well as for the Eurofighter (a very good interceptor, by the way). The least you could do as a journalist would be to present facts and stakes in a fairly neutral manner. I do understand you may be disappointed that the EF jet (a very good interceptor, by the way) lost the mother of all contract, and it's a very important deal indeed, with a decent selecting process that can be the honour of India and India's Air Force. May be the Indians can read more than just Eurofighter propaganda? May be should you start thinking about the many, many flaws of the EF Typhoon both as an airplane (although a very good interceptor) and as a programme, mostly because of the many compromises that were made to keep its members bundled?

Times are tough, I can understand that besides your job as a journalist, you also receive payments for advertising the EF Typhoon (a very good interceptor indeed, nobody will deny it, even Rafale promoters, but who knows, perhaps the client was looking for something more, or something else?). Then we have a message for you: complacency is never an option! Plus a suggestion: if you want to enlighten Der Spiegel's readers (because they're worth it), try to dig in all directions: from such a client's point of view, price is certainly not the only criteria!

BR, from Paris with love

[BTraven]

Originally Posted by Gerard

"Besides, who's ever even heard of the Rafale fighter jet? "

BUT HEY, SIR, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

You may have no idea about military aviation, but thank God thousands of experts around the world have some knowledge about the competitive landscape, they may prefer one airplane or manufacturer but they respect their competitors. For any single military sale in today's world, a long and balanced dissertation could be written exploring the details of what went and what went wrong. This is true for the Rafale as well as for the Eurofighter (a very good interceptor, by the way). The least you could do as a journalist would be to present facts and stakes in a fairly neutral manner. I do understand you may be disappointed that the EF jet (a very good interceptor, by the way) lost the mother of all contract, and it's a very important deal indeed, with a decent selecting process that can be the honour of India and India's Air Force. May be the Indians can read more than just Eurofighter propaganda? May be should you start thinking about the many, many flaws of the EF Typhoon both as an airplane (although a very good interceptor) and as a programme, mostly because of the many compromises that were made to keep its members bundled?

Times are tough, I can understand that besides your job as a journalist, you also receive payments for advertising the EF Typhoon (a very good interceptor indeed, nobody will deny it, even Rafale promoters, but who knows, perhaps the client was looking for something more, or something else?). Then we have a message for you: complacency is never an option! Plus a suggestion: if you want to enlighten Der Spiegel's readers (because they're worth it), try to dig in all directions: from such a client's point of view, price is certainly not the only criteria!

BR, from Paris with love

Great to have you here in the forum. I have read your comments on the British section of skyscrapercity and have to admit that your arguments impressed me very much. In my opinion the fields where the EF could be used are limited – the jet has only proved that he can intercept other fighters so far. That is too little for India which needs a jet which can drop bombs, too. The jet was just one time involved in a ground attack in Libya while the Rafale-jets prevented Gaddafi from reconquering Bengazi. And when you imagine how long did it take to introduce the EF than it's quite understandable that India decided to use the Rafale since the plane is battle-proved. The EF is like the Königstiger – a brilliant construction but easily harmed in praxis by technical flaws. He was his own enemy. And he did not fit in railways tunnels. I think the EF suffers from the same kind of flaws.