Rafale on Facebook

For those who use Facebook, all Rafale squadrons have a page on which they publish many beautiful pictures, and some news.

Here are various links :
The Provence
The Gascogne
The Normandie-Niémen

Also in the Marine :
Flotille 11F

UPDATE : 100th Russian air force anniversary

RafaleNews informed you about the 100th Russian air force anniversary earlier :
http://rafalenews.blogspot.fr/2012/08/100th-russian-air-force-anniversary.html

Unfortunately, at the time, we had no picture yet.

Here they come :

© Air Actualités

Find more here : http://www.air-actualites.com/diaporama/08-2012-russie/

Brazil : France confident about the Rafale offer, next step in November

Laurent Fabius, French Foreign minister, has shown very confident lately.

He claimed that the French offer is the best, overall, especially in terms of technology, after a meeting with the Brazilian minister of foreign affairs, Antonio Patriota.

http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/

The common point of view, though, during this meeting, was that there was nothing new :

Fabius : "our proposal still stands, but the decision is Brazilian."

However, Patriota reveals that our MoD, Jean-Yves le Drian, will meet Celso Amorin in Brazil. The purchase of 36 fighter is expected to be one of the topics, though not the only one. Exame.com indicates that this meeting will happen in November.

Indian ambassador in Paris confirms that negociations are progressing successfully

Mr. Rakesh Sood, Indian ambassador in France, has shown quite reassuring in a new article from Le Parisien.

However, the main point of this article actually provides some hints about why Germans and Russians claimed to be discussing with Indians lately.

The Mr. Reddy's questions have been rejected, but in fact, two members of the Contract Negociation Commitee have questionned the process too, and AK Anthony won't let any irregularities go through.

There is no illusion : there are still very harsh negotiations ahead, and a communication war is part of the game, hence the Russian and German reactions.

This is in this context that Mr. Rakesh Sood said :

I am sure that our government conducted technological and financial analysis with the greatest rigour. The negotiations are  progressing successfully.

Fighters flying over Paris for the 68th anniversary of its liberation

The Armée de l'Air published an article with some pictures by JB Gurliat

This implyed one Rafale from the 2/30 Normandie-Niémen, based in Mont-de-Marsan, and two Mirage 2000
from the 2/5 Ile-de-France, based in Orange.

Those two squadrons have the particularity to have received the Cross of Liberation for their engagement during WWII.

"We are not talking to anyone except Dassault Aviation"

During this week, two (ex)competitors of France in the MMRCA indicated that they still had their chances, and even that Rafale could finally loose this deal too.

For example, the the Hindu reported that Vyacheskav Dzirkaln, Deputy Director of Russia’s Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation, has shown quite optimistic about this matter :

“I wouldn’t say that the MMRCA tender is a closed issue. We have information that the tender is still up in the air,”

[...]

The sides have so far failed to reach agreement on these issues,

And nearly at the same time, The Times of India quoted two German officials...

"There have been discussions between German and Indian officials and I can say that this is not a closed book yet,'' said Schockenoff, a close aide of Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is in India on a four-day visit.
"As far as I know, there is not yet a commercial order committed by the Indian government. The Eurofighter manufacturers are working again on the offer and this is a subject of negotiations between the European consortium and the Indian government,'' he added.

Interestingly, Indian officials estimated it was time to remember everybody that, according to MoD source, actually :

"We are not talking to anyone except Dassault Aviation whose Rafale aircraft has been selected as the lowest bidder in the multi-billion dollar contract".

Another article, published in L'Usine Nouvelle, indicated that discussions are really going on, and well, though this may last for long. The article states that due to the high technological complexity of some of the Rafale's components, the aircraft should remain mainly built in France, for more than 50 percent of the production.


8/26/2012 UPDATE :

A new article counterdicting Russians and Germans :
http://idrw.org/?p=13603

Another reputed source told idrw.org that “There has been no backdoor level talks going on with any losing competitor ” and went on to remind us that Russian offer of Mig-35 had failed in Technical evaluation level and failed miserably  to be even considered as an option if talks with Dassault fails for any reason. next choice will be European EADS  ( Eurofighter ) but we are not talking to them on this matter yet .

 

100th Russian air force anniversary (August the 12th)

Thanks to Tonkatsu298


On the 13th, two Rafale accompanied by a Sukhoi flew over the Kazelski airfield so as to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Normandie-Niemen, as we could learn from the Armée de l'Air twits.
Hopefully, we will see pictures of this soon !!!

News on the exportation front

Actuality has slowed down a bit during summer, however, we learnt at least two things about export prospects :


The sad one : Brazil postponed his decision.
According to Mr Amorin (MoD), Brazil has no favorite, and it's not about which aircraft they will choose, but when. Economic growth, as observed for the first trimester, is too low to allow the country to purchase any aircraft. When conditions will improve, they will re-examine the different offers.

© http://www.jequiereporter.com.br/blog/

The happy one : India has found no irregularity in the selection process, discussions are going on, and quite well.
http://idrw.org/

On the Indo-French Rafale deal, Browne said that the bilateral negotiation process is now half-way through and is expected to pick up later this month. “I have flown the aircraft and we all are satisfied and happy with the aircraft. We hope the deal will be completed by the end of the financial year.”

© The Hindu.com