Massive Italian Defence Cuts Prepares to Kill Eurofighter

[Armand2REP]

Italy to cut back on Jets, Frigates and Troops

ROME -(Dow Jones)- Italy will scale back planned purchases of the F-35 joint strike fighter as well as frigates, Corriere della Sera reports Friday, without saying where it obtained the information.

In a detailed article, the Milan-based daily said Italy would reduce its planned EUR15 billion purchase of 131 F-35 fighter bombers, made by Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), to 100 or at most 110.

Defense Minister Giampaolo di Paola last month in a television interview defended the procurement program but said there might be some cuts as Italy slashes public spending to balance its budget by 2013. The U.K. Defense Ministry is postponing its final decision on how many F-35 planes to buy.

Italy'sFinmeccanica SpA (FNC.MI) has key roles in both the F-35 and the Eurofighter, a rival project that Corriere said may not proceed.

Italy will also reduce to six from 10 its order of FREMM-class frigates, which are to be made by Italian and French shipmakers in separate programs.

Italy is also planning to slash the number of personnel in its armed forces by around 40,000 out of a total of 182,500, Corriere says. The cuts would focus on mid-ranking officers rather than soldiers, the paper adds.

A defense ministry spokesman said no decision has been taken on any of the measures the paper reported.

Italy To Cut Back On F-35 Jet And Navy Frigate Orders - Report

 

[Armand2REP]

Furthermore with the recent Eurofighter defeat in India, Italy is going to stop working on the Typhoon and "divert" part (if not all) of its workforce towards the F-35, being assembled at the Cameri FACO (Final Assembly and Check Out) facility.

Italy buys its first three F-35s. With a shocking announcement: “a JSF will cost less than a Eurofighter Typhoon” « The Aviationist

 

[Armand2REP]

The decision to focus on F-35 involves the sacrifice of the Eurofighter program, the hunt for European production to which India has in recent days suffered the coup de gras, who has chosen to acquire the French Rafale. The chain of Eurofighter production technicians who work 11,000 will now devote himself to the assembly of those parts of the F-35 that the agreement with the Americans assigned to Italy.

L'austerity dell'esercito - Corriere.it

 

[KS]

Why do these Europeans have armies anyway ?

I mean WTF....who is going to invade Germany or France or Italy ?

 

[ganesh177]

Why do these Europeans have armies anyway ?

I mean WTF....who is going to invade Germany or France or Italy ?

They have invaded each other in past.

 

[SPIEZ]

LOL! Talk about the LCA being a total failure and waste of money, and now there's this.

PS: I know the EFT is better than than the LCA

 

[LETHALFORCE]

Is this continues the future of NATO is at stake.

 

[Armand2REP]

It all sounds good to me, death of NATO, death of Eurofighter. Even got good news about Saab today...

Saab Plunges Most in 3 Years as Orders Drop

Saab AB (SAABB), the Swedish maker of the Gripen fighter plane, fell the most in three years after quarterly orders were cut in half and earnings missed analysts' estimates. Saab declined as much as 16 percent, the most since February 2009, and was down 9.2 percent at 135.50 kronor as of 1:06 p.m. in Stockholm.

"They lacked big orders in the quarter," said Mats Liss, an analyst at Swedbank in Stockholm who recommends investors buy Saab's stock. "Cash flow was also on the thin side." The manufacturer's orders dropped to 5.11 billion kronor from 11.9 billion kronor a year earlier.

Saab Plunges Most in 3 Years as Orders Drop - Bloomberg

 

[Tshering22]

It all sounds good to me, death of NATO, death of Eurofighter. Even got good news about Saab today...

Saab Plunges Most in 3 Years as Orders Drop

Saab AB (SAABB), the Swedish maker of the Gripen fighter plane, fell the most in three years after quarterly orders were cut in half and earnings missed analysts' estimates. Saab declined as much as 16 percent, the most since February 2009, and was down 9.2 percent at 135.50 kronor as of 1:06 p.m. in Stockholm.

"They lacked big orders in the quarter," said Mats Liss, an analyst at Swedbank in Stockholm who recommends investors buy Saab's stock. "Cash flow was also on the thin side." The manufacturer's orders dropped to 5.11 billion kronor from 11.9 billion kronor a year earlier.

Saab Plunges Most in 3 Years as Orders Drop - Bloomberg

But the Swiss deal would save their necks for now. What's more, they've got a good chance to sell to Oman and some South American countries like maybe Argentina and Chile as well. It is just a guess, as Swedes target very insulated markets around the world, rather than compete against bigwigs like Dassault and EADS. Countries like Switzerland, Hungary, Czech Republic etc would prefer having Gripens and even Lavantian countries have expressed interest in the past.

Sweden will need to replace some of its earliest Gripen Cs. So Gripen has a safe and small market compared to the Typhoons. They already have around 5-6 customer countries with more central European states interested in acquiring them.

This depends on how independent the Swedes are and they don't buckle under US pressure. The other day, I was chatting up with this Swede dude who has worked in SAAB apparently. He cited that more than Gripen's shortcomings (which were actually better than US made stuff), it was US political pressure that caused Nordic countries to go for F-16s rather than Gripen. SAAB had made pitch in Norway, Finland and Denmark and due to pressure, it buckled up.

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Eurofighter OTOH is just too effing expensive. It has good capabilities but it still doesn't justify the price tag. At $127 million apiece, it is a killer for a 4.5th generation fighter WITHOUT a working AESA. The only benefit it has is almost complete automation comfort level for pilots and supercruise, over other competing 4.5th gen fighters. That doesn't justify the price tag.

What's even more surprising is that the member nations have orders from 6 countries that have exceeded 500 units and still the EFT's unit price remains so impossibly high. At this rate, they have only two options:

- lower bid prices to capture deals.
- At least make a market of 1,000 units to bring the costs lower.

Now with JSF in the game, this would become even more difficult.

 

[Tshering22]

LOL! Talk about the LCA being a total failure and waste of money, and now there's this.

PS: I know the EFT is better than than the LCA

What makes you say that? Have either of them been proven in solid combat? No. Let's see:

- Tejas comes from a country that has been under sanctions for testing nukes.

- Tejas got its design robbed off by Boeing (as per ADA chief) when all its blueprints were forced to be left in Boeing office after the announcement of sanctions and were not returned to India, forcing ADA to start from scratch in mid-90s.

- Tejas actually started being developed from 2001, though plan was initiated first in 1983 (which was only a recommendation then).

- IAF encouraged Tejas only after 2003 test flights and started participation.

- Tejas for being a test jet has still not faced a single crash, has tested successful weapons firing without a failure and has endured the most hostile of Indian weathers which even F-16s, F/A-18s, MiG-35s and Gripens (all coming from pioneering countries) failed to endure.

- The only problem Tejas program has is the pathetic decision making and bureaucracy. Remove that and see how we have Tejas Mk2s by next year January.


Now come to EFT-2000 Comes from 4 countries that have leading aerospace industry for decades. Germany, UK, Italy and Spain have leading industries in aerospace compared to us since decades. They can do so much to clinch worldwide markets. But still they are not able to justify their price tag for some reason.