Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008 - (Page 109)

FA R N B O R O U G H 2 0 0 8 “The UAE is seriously considering replacing its fleet of Mirage 2000 combat planes with the French new generation Rafale fighter starting in 2013. Discussions on this issue are underway between the UAE government and France.” Unseating Lockheed? Dassault is reportedly selling as many as three dozen Rafale fighters to the UAE. —a UAE government official Has Dassault Made Its First Export Sale of a Rafale Fighter? France’s Dassault Aviation appears to have both unseated Lockheed Martin from its favored position within the UAE’s air force, and at the same time ended a long run of frustrating near-misses in export sales competitions. France’s state arms export service, the Délégation Générale pour l’Armement (DGA), has reportedly reached an agreement with the UAE air force on the purchase of 30 to 36 Rafale fighter aircraft. These would be delivered to the Gulf state starting in 2013 and would eventually supplant the Mirage 2000-9 aircraft that were purchased in 1998. If the UAE opts to replace all of its Mirage models with the Rafale, the order could swell to over 60. “The UAE is seriously considering replacing its fleet of Mirage 2000 combat planes with the French new generation Rafale fighter starting in 2013,” a UAE government official told the staterun WAM news agency. “Discussions on this issue are underway between the UAE government and France,” he said. French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited the UAE capitol of Abu Dhabi in January and signed a pact that would have Paris establishing its first permanent military base in the UAE. That base will be set up in Abu Dhabi and become operational in 2009. Once up and running, some 400-500 French army, naval and air force personnel will be posted there, according to French officials. “This will be the first such French base in the Gulf, and it will face the Strait of Hormuz,” said the offical. The strategic importance of the strait has come under the spotlight of world attention recently over Iranian threats to cut off passage through the strait, since the majority of the world’s oil tankers must traverse this waterway. Abu Dhabi and Paris have been military-political partners ever since the two signed a defense cooperation pact in 1995. Under this agreement, their armed forces conduct regular joint maneuvers in the UAE. This has been the impetus for the Gulf Arab nation to purchase a number of major French weapon systems, including the Leclerc main battle tank. Dassault has been muscled out of competitions in both South Korea and Singapore by what they have described as “overt political influence [and interference] from Washington,” and efforts to sell the Rafale to Saudi Arabia fell short over the ability of the UK’s BAE to offer a continuation of the Al-Yamamah oil-for-weapons trade arrangement with a purchase of the Eurofighter. (This program has since been re-branded as the Saudi-British Defense Cooperation Project, or SBDCP). The Rafale sale is a surprise to the fighter sales world in that the LM F-16E/F Block 60 was thought to be the odds-on favorite for a followup sale to the UAE. Although the Block 60s purchased thus far have a lower price than the Rafale, there has been some discussion as to how long the aircraft would be in production; the Rafale is planned to be running a production line for at least the next two decades. Currently, the French firm is also discussing a sale with Libya. —Reuben F. Johnson Long-Haul Trent 900 Takes a Rest The Trent 900 engine displayed by Rolls-Royce at Farnborough has traveled more than half a million miles—equivalent to 21 times around the world—to get to the show. Engine 91008 first ran in Derby on October 4, 2005, and was then shipped to Airbus in Toulouse and installed on A380 MSN004, one of four Trent 900-powered flight test aircraft, which flew for the first time on October 18. Since then, it has flown more than half a million miles during which it has experienced extreme conditions: hot up to 38ºC in Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates; cold, down to –30ºC in Iqaluit, Canada, for aircraft and engine cold weather tests; and high, taking-off at 5,000-foot elevation at Medellin, Colombia, to prove that Trent 900-powered A380s have a payload/weight advantage of more than seven tonnes from high altitude airports. The engine last flew on 18 April 2007, having completed 373 flights, 925 hours total flight time and 1,185 hours total running time. Rolls-Royce is in Hall 4 at Stand G17. Points of pride for both sides. www.aviationweek.com/shownews July 14, 2008 109 http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008

Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008 Contents Thirty More Years CFM Reveals New Engine Boeing Reduces Forecast UAVs’ Quiet Revolution Finmeccanica: U.S. Success A Plethora of AESAs BAE North America Plus L-3 Becomes a Prime Better Late Than Never A Peek Behind the Curtain China’s J-10 Revealed Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner Breaking LM’s Hegemony

Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008

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