EADS appoints new Cassidian chief

HAVE YOUR SAY

04 September 2012

Well when we are not even prepared to support the Typhoon for RN use, and are buying the competing F35 when arguably we could skip it and go for a Typhoon/UCAV RAF why would any other country buy the Typhoon?

I also see the Germans are trying to muscle in on the UAE fighter contest on behalf of Eurofighter, and are continuing to lead the India bid (if there is still any chance).

The UK government needs to be more forceful and push ahead with the UK national interest where the Typhoon is concerned. If that means treating the program as a national one then so be it. It is effectively a British aircraft whose manufacture has been subcontracted all over Europa anyway.

The Germans are already planning to close their Eurofighter production line in 2015, so it is obvious what their real intention is.
Martin Bayliss - Stroud

05 September 2012

"The Germans are already planning to close their Eurofighter production line in 2015, so it is obvious what their real intention is."

The Germans cannot close down their production line unilaterally. That will happen, when the last typhoon has been built.

The British should stop this ridiculous chest thumping and hysterical reactions. The multi-role bid hasn't been awarded to Rafale yet. Dassault is still in the process of negotiating a contract with India.

So the Brits drop the navalized typhoon for no good reason. Then choose the F-35s, which turns out to be a Turkey, then switch to the F-35 navy version, but need a catapult, which is too expensive, then go back to the F-35s... Still unhappy. What impression do you give? Committed to the typhoon? Hardly! You take any stealth junk you can get instead!

Why don't you buy a navalized typhoon, save British jobs, improve the typhoon's capabilities (thrust vectoring), and show your commitment to the plane!. Instead you want to tell the Germans how to sell the typhoon? Crazy!

By the way, the Japanese bid was lead by the UK, wasn't it? Self criticism? No!? Just finger pointing!
kikl - Germany

05 September 2012

kikl - Germany

Japan was always going to buy the F35 unless we gave the Typhoon to them for nothing. The US bank rolling of Japan after the war still has resonance today as does Japan's concern about China and their wish for support from the US. In that light Japan would always buy the F35 regardless. The UK being stuck with Japan as the export target represented the UK drawing the short straw.

Agree though, the UK government's position on the F35 for the RN is ridiculous. A naval Typhoon would be good for all sorts of reasons.

Re India, the UK should have lead; the UK has obvious historical links and a long history of exporting aircraft to India. No doubt the Indians are bemused that BAE did not front the bid and took that as a sign of weakness for the Typhoon. They also view the UK, rightly, as the senior technical partner. Germany would be a better lead for countries like Turkey where there have long been strong links between the two countries.

What Germans may not realise is that in the UK we have an establishment hostile to our own industry, largely driven by the treasury with an agenda to destroy the UK's indigenous defence industrial base so that the tax payer never has to fund the development of large prestige projects and can buy off the shelf from the US or where ever. Germany, rightly, has the opposite policy.

So really my criticism is of the UK civil service and successive Labour/Tory governments.
Martin Bayliss - Stroud