Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Rafale production, secured beyond 2020 at least


Gérard Longuet revient sur les difficultés du... par LCP

Wednesday December 7, During an interview on LCP TV , French defense Minister Gerard Longuet stated that the Rafale production will be stopped if the Plane is not exported after the French forces have received all their airframes. The claim was immediatly spread out of context in many French and international media giving the impression that the production was about to be stopped which is obviously not the case as it is expected to run at least until 2018 (as reminded by Longuet) and most probably until 2022-25 at the current pace.

Edit december 8 :
To clarify Gerard Longuet statement, the Ministry of Defense has issued an official note stating :
"If Dassault does not export the Rafale, The production for the French army will not end before 2030. The deliveries will spread long after 2020. In the meantime, the aircraft will get upgrades between 2020 and 2030"
Posted by Kovy at 10:27:00 PM

7 comments:

  1. Christian BeneschDecember 8, 2011 at 2:15 AM

    Still, it is not a very wise thing to say, when two important competitions are still ongoing - to remind potential customer that you are struggling.

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  2. UnknownDecember 8, 2011 at 4:51 AM

    It's difficult when there's no political support..

    ReplyDelete
  3. Justin P.December 8, 2011 at 5:32 AM

    This has nothing to do with a customer. A prospective buyer (India/Brazil/UAE) would know exactly where the Rafale is placed if it does not win any orders.

    It has everything to do with warning Dassault to clean up its act on pricing and negotiations. Company negotiators were blamed officially by the UAE for the breakdown in talks; the same UAE officials also praised the French government. So in the case of the Rafale-it's a product with political support but poor marketing.

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  4. Christian BeneschDecember 8, 2011 at 1:40 PM

    Justin, that would also make sense. Dassault has to get its act together. If not, what a waste.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Justin P.December 8, 2011 at 5:14 PM

    Stephen Trimble at Flight Global talks about rumours of a possible MMRCA announcement tomorrow


    http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2011/12/picture-raptor-snapshots-by-th.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. LoopingDecember 9, 2011 at 9:55 AM

    “Once we have bought all the aircraft we need, will the production be stopped?” This is when Longuet said: “If Dassault does not sell the aircraft abroad, then, indeed, the production line will be stopped but the aircraft naturally will be maintained.”
    from
    http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/defense/index.jsp?plckController=Blog&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&newspaperUserId=27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7&plckPostId=Blog%3a27ec4a53-dcc8-42d0-bd3a-01329aef79a7Post%3a760e4c3d-9c4d-4bac-b4c2-4ed2fb7f22ec&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest


    those words are empty because they say somthing obvious which Dassault knows wery well.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Christian BeneschDecember 10, 2011 at 6:25 PM

    Actually looking at the video, I realise now that Longuet did not make a very strong statement at all, not in what he says and not in body language. He just states the obvious. If production is finished it will stop, support and upgrades are taken care of. Somehow this has leaked out into the press as "the Rafale is doomed". How did that happen?

    ReplyDelete

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