EU break-up no longer unthinkable

[Toby]

France to take over NATO European leadership?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017...ritain-brexit/

Are France a full NATO member these days??? ...Always thought they had one foot in and one out..

[citanon]

The last thing I would be worried about is a near banqrupt state developing a F35 type aircraft. None of their copies were much to swagger about.....Given the limitations of the German defence budget. The Typhoon would fit quite nicely

In that case they are better off buying f35s. At least those can actually perform the mission.

[citanon]

France to take over NATO European leadership?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017...ritain-brexit/

They had hopes, they had discussions, then Donald Trump got elected president, and that was that.

[drhuy]

Do you not see the absurdity of your question?

It's like me saying to you 'People like you said the rivers would run with milk and honey if we voted to leave'
(having deduced everything I need to know about you from a handful of posts)

'Where are these rivers? Where's the milk and honey eh? eh?'

oh really? obviously someone disagreed with you

https://www.theguardian.com/business...-admits-errors

Chief economist of Bank of England admits errors in Brexit forecasting

[Gun Grape]

Worth while noting that US strategy is moving away from current 4th 5th 6th gen language...and is moving more toward air superiority

Air Superiority is late 20th century. Now we talk Air Dominance

[citanon]

Britain threatens to "change economic model"if shut out from single market:

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN14Z065

[kato]

To what, will they introduce privateers again?

[kato]

They had hopes, they had discussions, then Donald Trump got elected president, and that was that.

The Donald doesn't care about NATO, so now they might just have to take the whole enchilada. Getting a bit more than wished for and all that.

[citanon]

The Donald doesn't care about NATO, so now they might just have to take the whole enchilada. Getting a bit more than wished for and all that.

Guess again.

http://www.stripes.com/news/tillerso...logue-1.448397

Meanwhile, Theresa May us setting course for hard Brexit:

http://www.express.co.uk/news/politi...-to-eu-tuesday

[citanon]

To what, will they introduce privateers again?

Competitive corporate tax.

[kato]

Given the limitations of the German defence budget. The Typhoon would fit quite nicely

Our dear chancellor a couple months or so ago announced raising the defence budget by 70% over the next few years, while our dear defence minister even before that drew up a wishlist of "things to buy" that'd pay for the entire Eurofighter program - for scale - about six to seven times. Or would buy us about 300 F-35 at current unit price with money to spare.
Government has too much money on their hands, that's the real problem.

Fully appreciate that technology and the threat changes. Just find the German position hard to understand. Why abandon a platform that you already own for a French one...

Eurofighter has a few technical limitations that make it hard to replace the Tornado with it. Simple example, the wing load and pylon distribution of the Eurofighter is designed such that if you wanted to strap air-launched cruise missiles onto it, you'd have to forego wing drop tanks (i know, the UK is accepting that for Storm Shadow, we don't like the range reduction though). Hence why we're not even trying to integrate that cruise missile on Eurofighter and leave it with Tornado.

The Eurofighters themselves will be upgraded for a strike role, most recently announced upgrade is buying Brimstone from you. That's more a CAS and tactical strike role though, not the one that Tornado has (standoff and penetrating tactic-strategic strike lobbing cruise missiles and nukes).

Competitive corporate tax.

That'd only hurt Ireland or Luxembourg. And, well, you'd have to drop corporate tax to zero to really hurt them.

Guess again.

http://www.stripes.com/news/tillerso...logue-1.448397

That's just a nod towards Eastern Europe (both NATO members and not-now-and-never-will-be-NATO) to allay them of their fears of a pro-Putin US government, doesn't really address concerns of NATO itself.

[citanon]

That'd only hurt Ireland or Luxembourg. And, well, you'd have to drop corporate tax to zero to really hurt them.

I'm sure they can find other ways to hurt other EU members too if push comes to shove.

That's just a nod towards Eastern Europe (both NATO members and not-now-and-never-will-be-NATO) to allay them of their fears of a pro-Putin US government, doesn't really address concerns of NATO itself.

The general message from the incoming administration is as strong a commitment to NATO as ever.

[Toby]

Air Superiority is late 20th century. Now we talk Air Dominance

Or even supremacy... ;)

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...or-air-423994/

[Toby]

They had hopes, they had discussions, then Donald Trump got elected president, and that was that.

Think you kind of nailed that one...lol

[Toby]

To what, will they introduce privateers again?

Lol, Hardly. But we can make things interesting