Germany is exploring options to push ahead with the development of its next-generation fighter jet without France should industry partner Dassault Aviation SA continue to insist on a controlling role in the program.
Could they be right though? Airbus could be too committee driven to offer substantial contributions. Airbus could use its political capital to secure their share of the profits while not being helpful in the development of the aircraft.
This sounds like a KF51 against MGCS conflict of interests scenario.
They probably are right that they could do it alone given that they made the Rafale, but that doesn’t mean it would be better if they did. Airbus was the largest contributor to the Eurofighter Typhoon, so we equally know that they’ve got experience bringing a project like this to fruit
Maybe they should split the design and the manufacturing. Everyone can throw a design to the table and then choose the best. And then and only then talk about which part is build by which partner.
I am by no means an expert in this kind of thing, but I believe they usually separate it by broad categories of components. In the Eurofighter, for example, avionics were primarily handled by the Italian part of the consortium. The F-35 similarly has a lot of the vertical take-off stuff handled by the British partner companies because they’ve got experience with that
I think it’s important to remember that this is a move away from a single unreliable choke point. For the F35 (probably the best fighter available right now) that’s the USA, newly unreliable. Making Dassault the new choke point is as good as the company is reliable, and “not being able to play nice with peers” is not the best start.
Could they be right though? Airbus could be too committee driven to offer substantial contributions. Airbus could use its political capital to secure their share of the profits while not being helpful in the development of the aircraft.
This sounds like a KF51 against MGCS conflict of interests scenario.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panther_KF51
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Ground_Combat_System
Both firms, Airbus and Dassault, proved they can build a modern fighter (Eurofighter and Rafale).
A multinational project can only work if the distribution is fair and agreements are honoured.
They probably are right that they could do it alone given that they made the Rafale, but that doesn’t mean it would be better if they did. Airbus was the largest contributor to the Eurofighter Typhoon, so we equally know that they’ve got experience bringing a project like this to fruit
Maybe they should split the design and the manufacturing. Everyone can throw a design to the table and then choose the best. And then and only then talk about which part is build by which partner.
I am by no means an expert in this kind of thing, but I believe they usually separate it by broad categories of components. In the Eurofighter, for example, avionics were primarily handled by the Italian part of the consortium. The F-35 similarly has a lot of the vertical take-off stuff handled by the British partner companies because they’ve got experience with that
I think it’s important to remember that this is a move away from a single unreliable choke point. For the F35 (probably the best fighter available right now) that’s the USA, newly unreliable. Making Dassault the new choke point is as good as the company is reliable, and “not being able to play nice with peers” is not the best start.