Shows how strong LM's lobby is in Holland. Not gonne help them much tho. There is not gonne be any fighter buy decision before 2015. At the moment there is no majority in parlement in favour for the F-35 also. The proposed budget is 4500 mil euros. You can not even buy a decent number of F-35 from that to replace the current 68 F-16's. On top of that there is the lifecycle cost Holland can not afford within the current budget. The Japanese expect around 500 mil dollar per F-35. Its just very unlikely you will get this threw Dutch parlement ever. Hillen can look abroad for cooperation al he wants but the next goverment will decide. Best Holland can do is in my opinion is get Gripen-NG. It cost around 150 mil dollar and that includes about everything. Holland should like get 68 of them and 30 Predator uav. That would be a good mix, affordable too.
A Gripen NG that flies (and can fight!) for its entire lifetime is worth more than a F-35 that you can only tow into a hangar it'll never leave for the exact same price.
Despite the wishful thinking of the Dutch Defence Minister and the effort to reduce costs with a group purchase. Does anyone realistically think that any European Country really has money for a large military purchase of anything with the impending debt crisis? The debt problems in Europe will resonate for years to come.
The Economist has a good webpage with dozens of articles and op-eds. http://www.economist.com/node/21524378
3 comments:
Shows how strong LM's lobby is in Holland. Not gonne help them much tho.
There is not gonne be any fighter buy decision before 2015. At the moment there is no majority in parlement in favour for the F-35 also. The proposed budget is 4500 mil euros. You can not even buy a decent number of F-35 from that to replace the current 68 F-16's. On top of that there is the lifecycle cost Holland can not afford within the current budget. The Japanese expect around 500 mil dollar per F-35. Its just very unlikely you will get this threw Dutch parlement ever.
Hillen can look abroad for cooperation al he wants but the next goverment will decide.
Best Holland can do is in my opinion is get Gripen-NG. It cost around 150 mil dollar and that includes about everything. Holland should like get 68 of them and 30 Predator uav. That would be a good mix, affordable too.
Heretic here.
A Gripen NG that flies (and can fight!) for its entire lifetime is worth more than a F-35 that you can only tow into a hangar it'll never leave for the exact same price.
Despite the wishful thinking of the Dutch Defence Minister and the effort to reduce costs with a group purchase. Does anyone realistically think that any European Country really has money for a large military purchase of anything with the impending debt crisis? The debt problems in Europe will resonate for years to come.
The Economist has a good webpage with dozens of articles and op-eds.
http://www.economist.com/node/21524378
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