Columbia wants Rafale

[Dawes]

Not sure I'd be holding my breath on this actually happening:

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2022/12/23/colombia-begins-negotiations-to-buy-16-rafale-fighter-jets/

[Sardaukar]

Well, since they seem not to like US jets and their inventory is bit "rogue" with Kfirs, going for Rafale is logical. 

After all, French never had much qualms to whom they sell.

[shep854]

Also a good fit for the region.  They don't need absolute top-tier weaponry.

[Yama]

Isn't Rafale that? I don't think anything more advanced is available for them.

Now it only remains to be seen how they can afford it.

[TrustMe]

The article says that the French is providing 20 years of credit for the buy. It does seem overkill for the region, given that theirs not much fighting between nations and the FARC has mostly disarmed itself. Maybe it's aimed at Venezuela?

[bojan]

There is nothing "budget tier" to buy today, so anyone buying fighter planes might as well buy good ones.

[Dawes]

Rafale is probably the most capable of their options, but it's also the airplane that most fits their financial abilities, given the deal that France is offering.

[ramontxo]

I usually participate in an Argentinian Forum, they quite suspect that there is a deal between the UK and Chile so as to transfer some (24?) Tranche 1 Typhoons to its Air Force (I assume it being part of the deal that got the Sentrys transferred fron the RAF to Chile).

[bojan]

T1 Typhoons is something you want to give to your worst enemies. If you don't believer me ask Austrians.

[seahawk]

Who bought a budget version of them. The biggest problem is that they can not take the AESA radar, so have only a very limited upgrade potential.

[DB]

The Austrians' fight over the Typhoons was purely ideological. After all, they'd relied on NATO goodwill for airspace control for decades, what one earth was the other side thinking when they decided they needed to DIY?

[TrustMe]

6 hours ago, DB said:

The Austrians' fight over the Typhoons was purely ideological. After all, they'd relied on NATO goodwill for airspace control for decades, what one earth was the other side thinking when they decided they needed to DIY?

My minds a litttle fuzzy over all the booze i've been drinking, but I think the Austrians had Swedish aircraft pre-Eurofighter. Is this right?

[Yama]

Yep:

Also, they had Saab 105's, which were actually sometimes used to stand in for Eurofighters, when the latter was inoperable:

They were retired just couple of years ago.

[TrustMe]

Cool pics.

[Dawes]

Draken looks modern even today.

[wendist]

Austria has been some of SAAB's most loyal customers.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gotech.at%2Fsaab_j29f_tunnan.htm&psig=AOvVaw064CdRceCh5N4KonThF9ET&ust=1672177742366000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CBAQjRxqFwoTCPDmh-GhmPwCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAR

 

 

[Dawes]

Does the Austrian national insignia have any special significance?

[R011]

3 hours ago, Dawes said:

Does the Austrian national insignia have any special significance?

Red and white are the colours of the flag.  Presumably, they wanted something different from Denmark and Turkey who had more conventional red and white roundels, so they had a competition in the mid thirties and this one won.  They switched to a black cross with white outlines for some reason between 1938 and '45, and returned to the white triangle on red disk when the Austrian Air Force was re-established in the fifties.