I'm with kaiserd #4.
The influence of Marcel, then Serge was out of all proportion to the firm's attributes, and starts with Bloch's success in not being absorbed into a State-entity in 1937. The line Ouragon-Mystere-Mirage III was estimable, but not beyond the scope of the Nationalised sites: success bred hubris. That featured in the recalled Saviour President, 1/59. So, Mirage IVA/Force de Frappe. UK and US tried to dissuade such proliferation/duplication - expensive dilution of France's economy, undermining the D'Artagnan, all-for-one essence of NATO. CDG suggested UK itself might examine exactly that: UK failed to grasp his logic.
UK, 1/65 reduced its Requirement for a deep nuclear penetrator to 40 strike/10 trainers: that killed TSR.2, whose cost would be untenable on so small an order, so UK joined McNamara's planned 3,000 TFX. BAC pitched Mirage IVA/Spey, but Defence Secretary Healey accepted F-111K and attended to a much larger Requirement to replace F-4K on CVA-01 and F-4M in RAFG. He could have joined any one of the plethora of French/FRG/Italian/US V/STOL schemes, whose raison d'etre was runways being Scudded. But he chose to presume intact pistes and to invent AFVG. Marcel soon caused CDG to uninvent his subordination to BAC, who were thus left to doodle doomed UKVG...until Marcel's hubris came to the rescue.
France was admitted to the F-104 Group's discussion of an NKF and cheerfully announced the problem was resolved: the others could share the perspex, wheels and brakes on anyMirage. Excommunicated. Healey in, like rat up drainpipe. Tornado. Serge then did the same. Typhoon. US tried hard to kill both.
If... French politicians had reined in Marcel and Serge, reminding them who pays their bills, then...the collaborations that worked on Concorde, ELDO....and on to borderless Airbus/MBDA, could have been earlier, extravagent duplication Tornado/Mirage 2000, Rafale/Typhoon avoided. Thank the Lord that we have all learned for the next generation.
