New Typhoons for Saudi Arabia? BAE says it’s working with UK on requirements
The apparent confirmation that Riyadh has delivered firm requirements to the UK marks a major step forward on the path to closing the long delayed fighter jet deal.
The apparent confirmation that Riyadh has delivered firm requirements to the UK marks a major step forward on the path to closing the long delayed fighter jet deal.
Sebastien Lecornu, the French armed forces minister, said the order “is excellent news for our sovereignty, our security and our armed forces who will benefit from extra Rafales with modernised operational capacities.”
Germany had long blocked the sale of the fighters, but now the German foreign minister reportedly said the situation in the Middle East has changed.
A simmering dispute between London and Berlin over exporting Eurofighter Typhoons to Saudi Arabia could pave the way for Dassault's rival Rafale offer to succeed, Eric Trappier suggested.
Once Brussels joins the program, details about the role it will play at both a funding and an industrial level are expected to be shared.
In addition to Brussels’s nascent inclusion in the fighter project, the French president revealed other, major joint weapons investments.
If the re-emergence of an assertive and occasionally belligerent Moscow was an unattractive possibility for Europeans of a cautious nature, an American president whose election campaign comments inadvertently or otherwise questioned his commitment to Article 5, the very heart of NATO, seemed unimaginable. Today, Europe is faced with both a Russia that is a strategic rival […]