In the case of Switzerland they are surrounded by powerful Air Forces - France Germany Italy Belgium... but I don't think they are willing to "outsource" air defense to others.
Yes it happened :In the case of Switzerland they are surrounded by powerful Air Forces - France Germany Italy Belgium... but I don't think they are willing to "outsource" air defense to others.
I thought they did already? I recall reading a couple of years ago that the Swiss Air Force was unable to intercept a suspect plane because they went home at weekends, and had a cover agreement with another country (Austria? Can't recall).
Looking at it from the outside, this fighter purchase seems to me to be motivated by: "other countries have air forces, so we should have one too" rather than any coldly logical analysis of needs and value for money. I don't know what the Swiss SAM coverage is like, but I would have thought that a modern, mobile SAM system would provide a deterrent to any hostile incursions at a fraction of the price (purchase and running costs).
Yes it happened :
Some Mirage 2000-5 did followed a lost Ethiopian Airline in Swiss air space because of that.
But note , there is a strong "we don't want to spend any more money on the army" movement in Switzerland. So I don't know to what extent these stories comes out in the press to say that Swiss pilots really don't fly the weekends, or to show how useless it is to have an air force if the neighbours can do the job...
Fact is , Swiss air force do some trainings with their neighbours, and there are certainly limited agreements if one or the other is unable to conduct an air policing mission to get help from the other side of the border.
But Switzerland is very attached to his neutrality policy, and since the big wars in Europe, that policy imply having an Army to defend itself independently (whether that can be effective can be debated), thus being part of no international military organisation (like Nato), or the EU . So its more complicated to have your neighbours doing the air policing job in your air space the whole year if you don't want to be part of any of their organisations.
As for SAM, i'm sure Swiss army have some already, but that tool would be a bit definitive for the air policing mission that is the center of the question in this acquisition.
But Switzerland is very attached to his neutrality policy, and since the big wars in Europe, that policy imply having an Army to defend itself independently (whether that can be effective can be debated), thus being part of no international military organisation (like Nato), or the EU . So its more complicated to have your neighbours doing the air policing job in your air space the whole year if you don't want to be part of any of their organisations.
Thanks for your response. That then goes back to the question of what kind of aircraft would be well suited to do the policing job, and how many would be needed. On the question of armament, I would have thought that a cannon would have been most important, loaded with self-destruct tracer ammo which would make a display very visible to the pilot of any miscreant aircraft...
Austria assumes air Policing for some of their neighbors.
How can they afford jetfighters? I thought they were in really bad economic problems? Aren't they in really good terms with China? If I'm not mistaken Grece gave the Chinese a port.Well done Greece on buying the Rafale to replace the Mirage 2000.
Italian and Hungarian air forces cover neighboring countries with no fast jet such as Slovenia.
Australia assume clearance over part of that airspace.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania rely all on permanent NATO basing (rotation).
Greek and Italian air forces cover neighboring countries Montenegro and Albania
It remains to be seen how much "sold" means a sale with a profit. So far €1.8B has been reported for the total sale but this administration has a lean to give away AdlA assets for cheap (see the donated airframe thread on Keypub).
The fact that MoD indicates a differanciated account balance b/w the loss of airframe and the buy of new airplanes tend to say that it could be very difficult to get the exxact value of this sale.
Especially in the absence of any inquiry.
The AdA will get 12 new Rafales to replace the 12 "lost" to the Greeks. Not a bad bargain, after all...
I really like all three of the Euro-canards, but the production rates are so frustratingly low. Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that the USMC decides it wants to replace its 140+ F-18C/D with Rafale M (I think it's a good idea, but it will never happen) and fairly quickly since those aricraft are getting pretty old. Ignoring the "must be produced in the U.S." mandate, could the production rate be ramped up to do that in three or four years, or would it take a decade?The contract adds another 18 Rafale to the production line, which is equivalent to almost 2 years of production.
I'm sure part of this order is about keeping Dassault solvent while the bizjet market is recovering.
Given how ferociously competitive that market was before COVID..it's going to be a bloodbath.
I really like all three of the Euro-canards, but the production rates are so frustratingly low. Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that the USMC decides it wants to replace its 140+ F-18C/D with Rafale M (I think it's a good idea, but it will never happen) and fairly quickly since those aricraft are getting pretty old. Ignoring the "must be produced in the U.S." mandate, could the production rate be ramped up to do that in three or four years, or would it take a decade?The contract adds another 18 Rafale to the production line, which is equivalent to almost 2 years of production.
I'm sure part of this order is about keeping Dassault solvent while the bizjet market is recovering.
Given how ferociously competitive that market was before COVID..it's going to be a bloodbath.
No. Really no. It corresponds to a real "gap" for the AdA,
Of course it is evident, as I said - because the 2000s are retiring, because the 180 final order has been stretched too thin over years, and now there is the Greek order.
No need for the bizjet market there, really.
Dassault is putting themselves on the edge, praying for the bizjet market and foreign Rafale orders to keep them alive. That's really the present situation.