Originally Posted by
Mil-26Man
...Thoughts?
the initial one is that the Germans won't pony up. a 6th gen aircraft that can do all of the things the various parties need it to do is going to be buttock-clenchingly expensive, and these countries haven't built a 5th gen aircraft yet.
the next thought is that if the Germans do pony up the development money for an aircraft that can do everything and claim the workshare, they will then back out when it comes to actually buying airframes - and the French will be left holding the €1bn each unit cost.
the thought after that is that the cost of getting 2 or 3 different/seperate aircraft types out of one aircraft 'system' - or perhaps more likely, starting off with 2 or three different types, merging them into one, and then seperating them out again for production - is going to make the F-35 look like a craft session for my 4yo.
the swinger is carrier operations - if that requirement gets ditched than it all becomes a bit more doable, though that would be difficult politically because then France becomes just another military power within the EU, and the EU as a whole goes out of the carrier strike business.