Saudis to buy Typhoon....

[raytofclimb]

.................everyone at work reckons.

Denied by government a few weeks ago but this is one of the more prolific topics at the coal face at the mo.

Standby for 3 Sqn to do all the work while all our shiny new toys go to the Desert in exchange for more good oil deals and 11 Sqn is put on hold for 3 years. (After it closes on monday!)

Anyone seen that truck driving school on tv?...............

Truckmaster I think it's called.

[DEL Mode]

Maybe the Sauds will do part ex.

Crappy old ADV for Nice shiny EFA's.

Bet they get guns as standard.

[Safeware]

Del, Bet they get guns as standard.

Like our jets have guns as standard? :rolleyes:

sw

[DEL Mode]

Sorry,

Mean't to say bet the Sauds buy the ammo.

Or should I say, bet HMG will buy the ammo, and pass it on to the Sauds.

Or is that BAES will buy the ammo, sell it to HMG and they will pass it onto the Sauds?

Either way, they will have a working gun (as will GE/IT/SP) and the RAF wont.

[RIDIM]

We have the ammo and the guns, we just lack the equipment with which to load it.

[DEL Mode]

Bet the Sauds wont.

[BEagle]

From Aljazeera.com (27 Sep 2005):

Tony Blair held secret talks with the Saudis over a major arms deal worth up to $80 billion.

Britain held secret talks with Saudi Arabia over a major arms deal worth up to £40 billion ($80 billion), a British newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing unidentified defense sources.

The Guardian newspaper said British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Defense Minister John Reid both visited the Saudi kingdom to urge Crown Prince Sultan to buy a European fighter jet called the Typhoon.

According to the report, Blair visited the Saudi capital, Riyadh, for talks on the arms sale on the way to Singapore, where the UK was bidding for the 2010 Olympics, and Reid followed three weeks later for a two-day visit.

Neither Blair's office nor the Defense Ministry could immediately comment on the report.

The Typhoon jets are manufactured by British defense and aerospace giant BAE Systems, Airbus parent EADS and Alenia Aeronautica, part of Italy’s Finmeccanica.

Spain, through EADS’s Spanish operations, is also among the Eurofighter program’s four founding states.

The makers of the jet say it is the world's most advanced multi-role combat plane. It can attack targets on the ground and in the air and has a top speed of 1,321 miles per hour, according to Reuters.

Saudi demands

The Guardian said the British-Saudi talks had been stalled because of three Saudi demands.

"Negotiations are stalling because the Saudis are demanding three favors," the newspaper quoted some unidentified defense, diplomatic and legal sources as saying.

The first Saudi demand was that Britain expels two anti-Saudi dissidents, identified by The Guardian as Saad al-Faqih and Mohammed al-Masari.

Faqih, who has asylum in Britain, is accused of being involved in an assassination plot against King Abdullah. But the newspaper said Faqih denied support for violence, adding that the Foreign Office does not believe him to be a danger to the country.

Masari apparently left the Saudi kingdom in 1994 for Britain.

The second Saudi request is that British Airways resume flights to Riyadh after they were cancelled on security grounds.

Finally, Saudi Arabia wants British authorities to drop a corruption probe implicating the Saudi ruling family and BAE. The Guardian said Crown Prince Sultan's son-in-law, Prince Turki bin Nasr, was at the centre of a "slush fund" investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

The largest export deal in Britain's history was Al Yamamah agreement to supply Saudi Arabia with fighter jets, artillery and other equipment.

The deal was signed in the 1980s and the main contractor was BAE Systems. Defense analysts said the series of contracts was worth about 20 billion pounds.

So - have these Saudi 'demands' been agreed to?

[singleseatadnav]

I heard the Saudis are going to buy it and then bury them all in the sand:cool: