Fighter jets for the Air Corps?

I don't think the Typhoon even if bought cheap will ever be as cheap as to buy and maintain and run as the Gripen.

Those factors aren't particularly relevant. You might as well spend 2.5 Billion as 1.5 Billion.

What matters most is which type will deliver for the Defence Forces and the State. Which plane will operate with greatest resilience, for the longest time, in some of the most turbulent skies, over a million square kilometres of inhospitable seas, and without any tanker service or a whole heap of alternative airfields.

While I like and admire the Gripen, I came to the conclusion a long time back that a single engined type operating out of Shannon would be a bad idea all round.

That's already the case.

I didn't say money was no object. I said cost wasn't particularly relevant. And it isn't.

And the reason is the politics of the thing.

There are the cohort of tankies and wistful columnists who would excoriate you either way, whether you spent 0.5 billion or 2.5 billion or tuppence-ha'penny on defence. Especially on a fighter plane project.

But that sort of opprobrium would pale into insignificance next to the backlash if the solution procured for that cost failed to do the job.

There are examples all over the globe of technical and systematic failures in military projects, most often brought about by economisation, where the original project had to be binned or so drastically overhauled, that the ultimate cost was many times what the right solution would have been in the first place.

So the best solution is the right solution. And the right solution is the proven solution, the durable solution, the appropriately engineered solution.

The cheapest solution is false economy.

Rafale it is so 😊

Dassault have their foot in the door with the new jet

The only reason the Argues even thought the Falklands invasion was feasible is that they believed Britain incapable of supporting a naval operation to retake them. Argentina believed the FAA retirement of Phantoms and Buccaneers, gave them free rein.

The RN for all the shíte I'll happily shovel it's way. Made masterful use of scant resources in supporting the effort to retake the islands. Despite, I'd argue, being setup to fail by the politicians.

Ricky D Philips has done some brilliant work on the Falklands, both in literature and twitter. Well worth a look

Cheers.

I did not know that the General Belgrano (USS Phoenix) was at Pearl Harbour.

They also got bounced into the invasion before the Junta had planned, the RN did as best they could with what they had, though things like the Black Buck raids were questionable use of resources.

I did also say "other than those needed to land troops and invade other places."

The SAAB Gripen, albeit in its C/D variant rather than the newest NG E/F variant can now lay claim to being combat proven in the ongoing Thai/Cambodia clash.

China backing them maybe. Even though China said they not picking sides.

Might not be rational people.

The Dassault PR machine is alive and well:

Thanks to D Lavery on Twitter for spotting this.

Appears to be free to access

https://www.parismatch.com/actu/international/defense-lirlande-se-tournera-t-elle-vers-le-rafale-francais-254781