European Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Re: European armed forces

Late, but re the Eurofighter prob:
The engine did not fail. For some reason (maybe birdstrike) the instruments around the nose that meassure stuff like speed were all blocked, relating wrong info to the flight computers, this led to an unrecoverable situation. That's who I got it.
Still, with over 90.000 crash free flight hours, the EF is the safest airplane on the planet.

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Some news from the missile front.
The Sweds started integrating the Meteor BVRAAM into their Gripen



Meteor launches begin for Gripen integration

By Robert Hewson - 25 October 2010

Sweden has announced the first live firing of the Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) from a Saab JAS 39 Gripen, less than two months after the decision was made to integrate the missile onto the aircraft. ...


And MBDA conducted a first underwater booster ignition of the Scalp Naval cruise missile.



Underwater Test for MBDA's Scalp Booster Missile

By PIERRE TRAN - Published: 25 Oct 2010 13:36

PARIS - MBDA in September conducted a first underwater ignition of the booster for the submarine version of the Scalp Naval cruise missile, in preparation for a full test-fire launch in 2011, the European missile company said Oct. 25. ...

Re: European armed forces

It seems the A400M deal is about to be finalized now. Governments and EADS reached an agreement, the repsective parliaments now have to agree to that solution.
Germany will get 52 instead of 60 planes with the other 7 remaining an option, and there will be no automatic low level flying capability in all planes. The price remains the same that was originally set for 60. The UK cuts it's order from 25 to 22.

So far it seems flight testing is going smoothly, airbus sais the plane is close to doing it's first airdrops and arial refueling tests.

Europe finalises Airbus A400M bailout deal
Fri Nov 5, 2010 3:03pm EDT

TOULOUSE, France, Nov 5 (Reuters) - European buyer nations reached a final agreement on Thursday on a 3.5 billion euro bailout to rescue the troubled Airbus A400M (EAD.PA) military transporter, French Defence Minister Herve Morin said. [...]
But delays in making the West's largest turbo-prop engines put the A400M back four years to 2013 and sent costs soaring.
Buyers hammered out a provisional funding deal in March, following the discovery of 7.6 billion euros in excess costs. Taxpayers will end up bearing just under half of this. [...]
Buyers will take a total of 170 planes instead of 180 planned when the project was launched. Britain will cut its order by three planes to 22 and Germany by seven to 53.
The deal calls for a price increase per plane of 11 million euros for a total price hike of just under 2 billion euros. A further 1.5 billion will come as credits against future exports. ...

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Re: European armed forces

The A400M is now flying in testing for one year and it still seems to go well. The fourth plane just joined the fleet, 1000h flighttime have been logged in almost 300 sorties over the last year. Two more years until delivery starts.
In about five years, european countries may finally have their own limited strategic airlift capability. Without having to rely on forign companies only.

4th A400M Takes Off
By PIERRE TRAN - Published: 20 Dec 2010 13:06

PARIS - The fourth development A400M aircraft, dubbed Grizzly 4, made its maiden flight Dec. 20, taking off from Seville, Spain, and marking a milestone in the program to field the new military airlifter, Airbus Military said.
EADS, the parent company of Airbus Military, is expected to sign by the end of December the 3.5 billion euro ($4.6 billion) agreement needed to fund the cost overrun of the A400M transport aircraft program. The deal was reached in March with the customer countries, but detailed negotiations needed to be completed to draw up the documents setting out the accord. [...]
The development aircraft have combined to fly for more than 1,000 hours in slightly less than 300 sorties in 2010. The first A400M is due to be delivered in about two years' time, the company said. ...

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Re: European armed forces

Swedish and French fighter aircrafts :

Re: Aircraft Carriers II

Frigates with heliports of 4 countries :

Re: Aircraft Carriers II

Ship-based anti-aircraft guns of 7 countries compared :

Re: Aircraft Carriers II

Naval artilleries of 6 countries compared :

Re: European armed forces

dhaka city, Welcome to the forum! Apparently you need to read the forum rules before you post again. Please read!

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Re: European armed forces

Interesting article on the state of Europe's aerospace industry. There's some criticism that Europe's eagerness to hope aboard the F-35 project may hurt their aerospace industry in the long run

Re: European armed forces

Europe in general doesn't spend much of its defense funding on logistical platforms like heavy airlifters. Even the United States doesn't spend as much money as it should on things like that, but it does ten times better than anyone else. Frankly, that whole project had very little to do with meeting any Euro military requirements and everything to do with pumping subsidy money into Airbus through the back door.

Scratch said:

Since we don't have a thread for those topics, I decided to open one to collect all items on that one.

Unfortunately, I'll have to open with another never ending story:


On the one hand, it's a prestige project, have our own capability to built a heavy transport. Then again, spending that much money for something that late isn't a good thing.
And, the cargo planes that need to be replaced don't really have a lot of time left. Leasing russian planes all the time can't be a solution either.
So, what's left? Maybe a bigger european pool of C-17 in a european airlift command.

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