Fighter jets for the Air Corps?

EchoIndia

To be honest the Dáil should be above the sort of thing where the Taoiseach of the day feels the need to engage in this sort of media-friendly rubbish about Santa. Sorry if this sounds a bit Scrooge-like!

bear1

I do agree with them though. It’s an absolute farce from irelands side

Dohvolle

Its OK, there are no other issues to worry about in Ireland, there is time to waste on this.

There is no problem with petty crime on the streets of dublin

The far right aren't in full flow in our towns,

Everyone has a home,

There is no refugee crisis

No wars...

And most of all, a fully equipped and well paid Defence forces exist, to sit about at christmas with nowt to do but dream of meeting Santa.

mondeo

I think Ireland should at least have some sort radar around the southern coast.

mupper2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121500111#Comment_121500111

Like do they think there are crowds of children watching the Dail waiting for this and then telling their parents to vote for the guy who said it...it's so feckin stupid.

Dohvolle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121500143#Comment_121500143

"Look Billy. That man Believe in santa too!"

"Isn't he the Teeshirt?"

"Close Enough Billy,"

"Doesn't he know Santa is only for children?"

"Ehrm...."

bear1

So this article

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/irelands-security-freeloading-is-a-threat-to-britain/

seems to have gone noticed with another article published on the back of it from I think a northern Irish website.

At what point will the government have no choice but to finally start policing our own airspace?

sparky42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121509664#Comment_121509664

You think an article in the Spectator or the Telegraph is going to somehow change Irish policy? When was the last time that happened?

bear1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121509786#Comment_121509786

I don’t but the British tax payer may indeed push their own government to stop using their funds to cover the gap and instead the Irish to pay them if we insist on not bothering to protect our own space. Which we should be.

EchoIndia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121509830#Comment_121509830

When is the last time (if ever) that anything to do with Ireland registered even remotely as an election issue in Britain?

purplepanda

What a total anti Irish rag The Spectator is.

I just noticed that life long anti Irish auld coke-fiend hag Julie Burchill writes articles in there, the latest regarding Shane MacGowan, of her many vile diatribes written about the Irish over the years.

The same tramp that had to pay damages for racially abusing a Bangladesh British journalist. There's nothing new about The Spectators attitude towards Ireland.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/irish-ambassador-to-uk-accuses-british-magazine-of-anti-irish-bias-over-brexit-1.3858298

jonnybigwallet

It would be good to see more articles like these....especially if other European papers took it up, such as Le Monde, El Pais and the Frankfurter Allgemiener Zeitung etc etc. The government needs to be shamed into putting a stop to their miserly attitude and put their hand in their arse pocket and spend heavily to make up for decades of under investment. LOA3 is peanuts. We need about 16 fast jets. Even the KAI would do. And recruit or second foreign pilots to get it up and running.

Larbre34

Why would any of those papers give a flying shyte?

The Spectator is a particular sort of Tory arse paper, who are still very painful in their behind over the EU backing Ireland to the hilt over Brexit, and in the process shafting Britain into a terrible deal, on all fronts.

The Spectator, the Torygraph, the Mail, the Sun and some others will always look to fire some broadside at impudent and obstinate Ireland, however useless that effort always is.

The continental titles have FAR bigger fish to fry than our military readiness.

Dohvolle

The Dictator and the Torygraph have only one objective. Make Britain look better than johnny foreigner.

They both picked up on an article and made no attempt to verify its contents with the RN. Neither even credited the original story.

Markcheese

Personally i'd rather they went to ukraine ,but jets do come up , and i know most would be in favour of gripens or failing that f-16s,

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesia-delays-buying-used-fighter-jets-cites-fiscal-limits-2024-01-03/

jonnybigwallet

Them Dassault jets are bloody good!

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121499409#Comment_121499409

We have no capability to shoot down anyone overflying the country any day of the year!

Markcheese

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121571949#Comment_121571949

The article was about retired Qatari mirage 2000 5, that Indonesia isnt buying ,

I think theyre pretty much an air superiority/ interceptor varient ,

Half surprised the tiawanese havent tried to pick them up..

Dohvolle

France is keen to move it's legacy mirage users into the Rafale game, swapping out older French Air Force Rafales to former Mirage users for a very good price. To buy Mirage 2000 as an interim measure while waiting for Rafale is absolute lunacy.

Imagine if you went into the vodafone shop to buy the newest Iphone, only for the shop to say, "we are awaiting a new shipment, can we interest you in this model instead?" and hands you one of these?

The Mirage 2000-5 is an improvement on the original, but still 20 year old tech. The Qatari aircraft are all 1995 builds, and far better deals are available, instead of paying $66m for a gen 4 with low hours.

Better off going to Ukraine (who are interested, I believe).

Lorddrakul

According to some sources, the Gripen is significantly cheaper than the Rafale, and overall, seems much more suited to Irish needs.

Not many about second hand, though.

A table: Top 10 most expensive fighter jets in 2023

Rank Aircraft Type Current Unit Cost (in million)

1 Lockheed Martin F-35 $177

2 Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor $143

3 Eurofighter Typhoon $124

4 Boeing F-15EX$117

5 Dassault Rafale $115

6 Chengdu J-20 $110

7 Saab JAS 39E/F Gripen $85

8 Shenyang FC-31 $70

9 Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet $66.9

10 Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70/72 $63

Source: Aerotime.aero

sparky42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121586404#Comment_121586404

Its not surprising in anyway that the Gripen is cheaper than the Rafale either to buy or to sustain, still not really relevant to us though.

Lorddrakul

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121586446#Comment_121586446

Why not relevant?

sparky42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121586533#Comment_121586533

Because even if you assume the most optimistic actions of LoA3 you are talking about maybe in another decade or two an Irish government might look at the possibility of fighters, at which point any current spec plane won’t be relevant to what we might be looking at. It would be like looking at a 1990s F16 and then buying the 2020 build variant, virtually a different animal.

2011abc

We are a NEUTRAL country .This is shameful and Im speaking as a complete lifelong military aviation anorak .Have a stroll around Dublin city center and maybe report back then on how badly we need a financial black hole like this .Of course (especially with change from Air Corps to Force )its all probably already decided with backhanders all round from the manufacturers resellers etc .Id maybe grudgingly buy them a Hercules but this is complete and utter insanity .

sparky42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121599560#Comment_121599560

Plenty of NEUTRAL nation have functioning combat forces, why shouldn't we? And nations can do more than one thing at a time in case you hadn't noticed, and oh yeah when we have spent decades not spending on defence we still had all the issues that we have now...

Dohvolle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121599560#Comment_121599560

RUBBISH.

NOTHING will coerce me to change my mind on this matter. I consider myself an expert in this particular area.

Nobody and I mean NOBODY should walk around Dublin's city centre.

It's a kip. Always has been. Ye dubs won't admit it because compared to the Square in Tallaght, Kildare Village, Or Liffey Valley (No longer in Lucan apparently), its all the city centre has. Fast food restaurants, discount stores. The GPO. So awful the first thing our founding fathers tryed to do was get the Brits to demolish it for us.. The Guinness place and the monument to heroin addiction draws tourists who know no better, but no proud Irishman should have any cause to visit the city centre voluntarily, or under duress. There's a good reason there is no "O'Connell St" Luas stop on the red line..

That in itself though is no reason not to have the means to protect our skies. The fact you think a single overpriced 60 year old US design propellor transport would be of some use to us however tells me all I need to know about your opinion on military matters.

sparky42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121599684#Comment_121599684

😂😂

Larbre34

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121599560#Comment_121599560

Thats the worst argument I've seen anywhere on this forum for a long time. And its a low bar.

Its akin to saying lets stop building primary care health centres around the place, because there are playgrounds that need a facelift and ditches that need cutting back.

I should also point out, the the Government HAD ALREADY adopted the report of the Commission on the Defence Forces, and committed to budget increases commensurate with Level of Ambition 2, recommended therein.

So you may want to address accusations of insanity to the Government and indeed the Dáil, who adopted it.

mupper2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121599560#Comment_121599560

I hate to be the one to burst the bubble...but there will e little room for neutrality in what's coming...

Larbre34

France this week ordered from Dassault 42 x Rafale F4s, as concern over development progress on the Franco-German FCAS aircraft.

That's how you do it.