Other quote : The French don't plan to fight, except against colonial rabble.  They're probably right, too.

Taken together, I think those two quotes are right on point. In the current context :

_ there is pretty much 0 chance of France having to fight a First World nation. Most are our allies, others, like China, well they're far enough away that there's few reasons for a direct military conflict.

So what's left ?

_ little African wars and brushfires. We can deal with those well enough on our own, we've been doing it for ages and it doesn't take much stuff to do it.

_ other conflicts which are always going to involve our allies anyway : see Afghanistan, Iran... We didn't have to go in the former country (it was never really one of our areas of interest/influnce, Massoud's alleged Francophilia or not), we went there because our ally was attacked (you know, sometimes it's easy to forget that France and America are actually allies  , naturally with the usual provisos that even two "close" allies don't always have convergent interests). Iran, well, duh, no need to explain why everyone and his car would be involved by a war in the Persian Gulf !

Plus money's tight (a universal answer, alas...). I have few doubts that France has -currently- the necessary intellectual and industrial basics to design an indigenous AWACS or even a FAMAS replacement ;-) IF, money was no concern. Which it is not, so, choices, choices. Why reinvent the wheel, etc.

Anyway, whatever our nationality, we're always going to complain because the real world (paricularly our own countries) isn't behaving as smartly and competently as we'd wish, aren't we ? 

Not a good new for us.And what I fear before since Congress and USAF want to keep F22 line open and to supply israelis and Japan

US offer F22 export version to UAE

UAE: Lockheed Martin, F-22 Rap... (40$)

Posted on: Sat, Dec 12, 2009

Lockheed Martin is said to be trying to convince the Emiratis to buy the F-22 Raptor rather than the Rafale aircraft. The following 406-word report sheds light on the subject and tells how the Emirati officials are reacting. Note that the F-22 Raptor, made by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, uses stealth technology and was displayed at Dubai Air Show last month.

Any report of an export of F-22s, is suspect at best. If you believe that the US will export F-22s to the UAE you probably believe one or more of the following:

-That Bush was behind 9/11

-That the Moon Landing was done on a Hollywood sound stage

-That Kennedy was assassinated by the "military-industrial" complex

-That aliens have landed on this planet frequently and anally probe inhabitants of mobile homes

H, I have been searching for an example of jeune ecole strategy that has worked but with little luck. By its definition it is the desperation strategy of a weaker opponent: thus by its defnition it is hardly a winner's strategy but a last ditch counter/spoiler strategy tu buy time or to harrass/impede rather than win.

 

The Somali pirates may be an example of a jeune ecole strategy: using Zodiacs with some success to board rather than engage larger ships. (But then again this doesnt really count as there is no war and the pirates represent no country).

 

And while it is possible to jerry rig a ship to have it fire torpedoes or assymetrically engage capital ships, it is much harder to jerry rig a plane to enable it to take on a modern fighter.

 

Perhaps in the future though we may see drones that are the equivalent of the SCUD missile: cheap, disposable and produced in quantity, that can take on modern more advanced fighters. This could be an aviation jeune ecole type approach.

i think thats a miss-understanding, it will be the f-35

another good example of how the internet and poor quality journalism go hand in hand and why good old common sense is gold.... :)

 

 

Make the reporter write one thousand times on the blackboard:

 

"ITARs and the Obey Amendment mean no export sales for the F-22 under any FMS provisions"

I am not surprised if the US want to sell the F-35 to the UAE .

2 days ago , I wrote :