sancho
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The battle to sell fighter aircraft
Ivan Gale
Jun 27, 2011
"Incredible India" is the title of a ubiquitous advertising campaign that promises surprises around every corner, and the motto certainly applies to the country's ongoing fighter jet competition.
The American favourites, Lockheed Martin's F-16 and Boeing's F-18, were eliminated from the race after extensive trials.
But lesser-known jet fighters on the international export market, the French-made Dassault Rafale and the pan-European Eurofighter Typhoon, remain in the running...
..."Fighter jet sales are always, always political matters," says Eric Trappier, the executive vice president for international business at Dassault Aviation.
Europe's success so far in the Indian market just may underscore the feeling that when it comes to defence sales, sometimes it is good not to be from the US.
Charles Edelstenne, the president of Dassault Aviation, says countries are wary of relying too much on the US, whose arms sales are heavily influenced by American policy towards the politics of potential buyers, leaving nations vulnerable if the American political landscape is changed by congressional elections.
"India's aircraft policy is not to put all eggs in one basket - and that basket is the American basket," says Mr Edelstenne, noting that India is already planning to spend billions of dollars on military cargo planes and helicopters from the US company Boeing.
"Even if a country receives promise of support from the US president, that doesn't guarantee you anything at all.
"The power is in the Congress, and at any time, the Congress can change its mind, and they can decide to block armaments, spare parts, whatever they want," Mr Edelstenne says.
By contrast, Dassault and France "stay neutral", Mr Edelstenne says. "We do not have the willingness to decide on the foreign policy of our buyer. It is their policy, not ours," he says.
In other cases, countries often chafe at the restrictions placed on exported US technology, or the lengthy approvals process required by the US government.
In a recent interview on the forum , a Pakistani F-16 fighter pilot spoke of the lengths to which the US goes to keep its technology a secret from countries such as China.
"They have put digital seals [on] all the sensitive technologies, which can only be opened via a code, which only they know," the pilot says....
Full: The battle to sell fighter aircraft - The National
Again, it was the right decision to go with Europeans in MMRCA, now we just have to choose the right once!
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