France confirms major arms deal with Libya

Libya is probably looking for favors from the European Union and its members. By buying weapons from Europe, it's also buying support from politicians there.

 

Surprise Libya has not bought the Rafale yet. They may be the first foreign customers.

 

The Rafale is being rejected from every country it's been offered to so far. It would be very costly and unnecessary for Libya to even purchase Rafales, they should just stick with their Mirage aircraft and buy upgrades for them.

 

I agree - Libya doesn't need the Rafale.

France is getting so stuffed on export orders. At the rate it's going the only hope would be for Taiwan to not get the F-16 Block 52 deal - there have been rumours that Taiwan and France could sort something out with the Rafale, maybe upgrading the Mirages as well to sweeten the deal.

 

Out of curiosity, why are countries rejecting the Rafale?
Is it just the price or is the aircraft lacking something?

 

yeah i also wanna know....:coffee:

 

Taiwan can twist France's arm for some tech on the Scorpene submarines....

 

I think it's down to a few things. First, it isn't as cheap as the latest F-16 or something like Grippen. Second, there aren't that many countries that have experience with French weaponary that could afford it - whereas the US has much wider market penetration, as it were. Third, some people don't consider the Rafale the equal of things like the F-35 or Typhoon (a matter of perception, not "truth").

I don't think Rafale is a bad plane at all. Maybe a simpler way of putting it is that it's not cheap enough to appeal to countries who are on a budget but not "classy" or "technologically superior" to justify a purchase by a country with a large budget.

I don't think they're that desperate yet.