Sebastien Roblin, National Interest: Will Germany and France Develop Europe's First Stealth Fighter?
The French Armée de l’Aire and the German Luftwaffe are at a crossroads: by now, both countries have established their respective 4.5-generation fighters into service, the Dassault Rafale and the Eurofighter Typhoon. Both highly capable jets are planned to remain operational for at least two more decades. However, the European leaders lack true fifth-generation stealth aircraft to replace them—and no such plane is close to being developed, as embarking on such a project would be monstrously expensive. Indeed, Japan seems to be backing away from developing its own stealth jet despite having built a flying demonstrator.
Berlin, Paris and London have historically preferred to purchase major weapon systems from their domestic arms industry rather than shopping abroad. The high cost of developing jet fighters has compelled European capitals to pool development costs and work together, producing aircraft such as the Franco-German Alpha Jet trainer and the Franco-British Jaguar attack jet.
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WNU Editor: The Germans are not willing to fund and maintain their existing fleet of fighters .... The German Luftwaffe Has Just Four Combat-Ready Eurofighter Typhoons Out Of A Fleet Of 128 (May 2, 2018), or even have enough workable helicopters for their pilots to train on .... German Military Pilots Can't Get Enough Flight Time Amid Helicopter Shortages And Are Losing Their Flying Licenses As A Result (May 3, 2018). So I sincerely doubt that they are now going to fund a new (and expensive) fleet of stealth fighters.
2 comments:
Ring me when Germany can deploy 10 fighters at the same time.
This is the French oligarchy trying to pretend they are important without doing any heaving lifting.
They want the Germans to bankroll it. They want to bask in the glow of technical accomplishment.
The French are important of they are circumspect in their political life and exercise moral authority. They can't do the latter without doing the former. The cannot do the former without double digit unemployment, no culture, no borders, and ever rising debt.
I thought French was a dead language, but it is not. There are so many French speakers in Africa that it is a force to be reckoned with. Still France will not be able to capitalize on that unless they keep their own house in order. Government officials of almost every party pretty much all come out of one school. There will be no new ideas. It will be group think all the way down.
https://tradingeconomics.com/france/government-debt
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