Fighter jets for the Air Corps?

Not that i am wayyy out of touch with things military but, given all that talk about US and Uk jet aircraft does anyone know the score with France and their Rafale and Mirage jets?

I guess any deal/lease etc. will have to include training, servicing, weapons updates etc. The last mirages were just retired by the French they still are fast with decent range if getting old.

Quoting myself and in particular my critique of Aussie F35 buy. An Australian think-tank is pushing for a B21 buy primarily for reasons of range and throw weight.

I tend to agree with this analysis insofar as the F35 doesn't suit Australia's need for long range strike and sea control.

In other news and of far more pertinence to Ireland. The Argentines have shelved their fighter tender process. So those Danish F16s will be going spare 😉

The greens got there’s at a steal, upgraded versions too…Indonesia are buying 42 of them.

To return to the question of the Aussies and the B21 some other points I would raise is, if the complaints are about costs and reliability of the F35, turning around and suggesting the B21 is a better option makes zero sense. The life time costs of even a squadron of multi engine stealth bombers will dwarf the costs of the same for a F35 squadron and given it hasn’t even flown “officially” let alone entered service nobody knows what it’s reliability rates will be. And like the decision to go for SSNs it seems to take no consideration of the build rates of the US, they need the B21 in service particularly as the B1 is half shagged, when would they find time to add more for another nation (same issue as to where the spare capacity for the SSNs will come from). Ultimately if they want long range strike/sea control they will have (at some stage) their nuclear subs, they don’t need Stealth bombers.

Australia doesn't need SSNs and Stealth Bombers anyway.

It just needs a capable enough military to protect the homeland and safely host allied forces who DO possess large scale offensive capabilities, ie American and British boomers, carriers and heavy strategic bombers.

I mean the doomsday scenario for any wandering NATO ship, sub or plane after a nuclear war, was always to head south and try to reach Australia. Its the world's largest floating dock and aircraft carrier rolled into one.

Lol very very apt typo 🤦‍♂️

Radar

Ditch the pc9 s ,

3 or 4 PC 21s

about 12 gripen c

And 2 to 4 gripen d ,possibly leased

And some class of simulator

Move everything fixed wing to Shannon,+ lots of hanger and engineering space..

With family accomodation for recruits,

And an aviation engineering college,

You do the course,while getting paid and owe x number of years service to the state, plus a definite defined reserve function .

Problem is ..

It all costs, and the Irish public wouldn't really value the money spent ..

It would need to be done in stages

, with political will to follow through ..

Most of the Forbes article is either inaccurate or speculative diarrhoea.

The Republic of Ireland isn't mulling anything. It has a long term investment plan, the first level of which is being enabled through different development strands.

The second level, which includes the possibility of acquiring fighter interceptors, will be considered for implementation at a undetermined future date.

A cursory phone call would have told Forbes all this.

An amateurish article. Stuck for content given the time of year is the best you can say about it.

I think whats going on here, is that Forbes is a financial and investment publication. They are interested in anything that will cause market fluctuations, such as oil and gas embargoes, the security of energy and raw materials supplies and the security of data and communications assets in the current environment, so thats where their emphasis is, picking up on risks in geo-political terms, rather than on any real accuracy in the security matters.

Still, its shoddy enough, their sub-editors should do better.

And as usual with the French they are willing to loan the money to keep the procurement going.

I imagine plenty of stores, spares, training and I suppose which variant they might be going for? Ex French early models or the latest spec?

That price is eyewatering for 16, I don't care what ancillaries are included.

They'd have got F35s for that and change to spare.

Wonder as well what price other non-EU nations have been getting for such numbers?