Posted on 08/30/2024 9:47:29 AM PDT by USA-FRANCE
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Thursday announced a $3 billion deal to buy 12 French warplanes, in a move that shifts his country away from its dependence on Russian arms. The announcement about the Rafale multi-purpose fighter jets was made during a joint news conference in Belgrade with French President Emmanuel Macron during a two-day visit to Serbia as part of what French officials have called a strategy of bringing Serbia closer to the European Union.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
The French Mirage is a pretty good fighter plane I’ve been told. It’s a shame Serbia was our WW2 ally. BJ changed that.
Russia is making and using most of its own weapons and they work quite well.
$3 billion for 12 planes makes each plane cost roughly $250 million dollars which is a rip off for the Rafael fighter. Somebody is getting their beak wet and bloody in this deal. The Serbians should hang their leadership over this fiasco.
France is desperate to support this industry, and stay relevant to USA, China and Russia defense industries.
They probably sold them for pennies on the dollar.
No surprise, Russian military weapons have always had great performance claims but their actual use in Ukraine found them underwhelming.
Russian arms exports fell by 53% between 2014–18 and 2019–23. The number of countries purchasing major Russian arms dropped from 31 in 2019 to 12 in 2023. States in Asia and Oceania received 68% of total Russian arms exports in 2019–23, with India accounting for 34% and China for 21%.
I wouldn't be surprised if that price includes spares, test equipment, and maintenance training.
Czar Nicholas made the biggest mistake in history starting WW I by mobilizing Russia’s army in support of Serbia against Austro-Hungary. Serbia wasn’t important to Russia’s strategic needs. So what if it was a Slavic nation. The sad truth is that WW I was a just a big family fight.
Definitely good news!
Who gives you these throw-away, propaganda lines?
“$3 billion for 12 planes makes each plane cost roughly $250 million dollars which is a rip off for the Rafael fighter. Somebody is getting their beak wet and bloody in this deal. The Serbians should hang their leadership over this fiasco.”
It’s not possible to take the total number and divide by the number of planes to determine the cost. This isn’t buying a car. The deal will include spares, software updates, test equipment, factory support and any number of other items. The deal likely includes a weapons package of missiles, bombs, targeting pods, electronic countermeasures pods and a suite of defensive addons. Every one of those will come with test stations, factory support, upgrade packages, software and other items. People tend to think of missiles, as an example, as bullets. That’s not the case. Many missiles are very complex systems that are interoperable with other satellite and ground assets, which also need their own maintenance and support. The actual cost of the aircraft themselves may be a much smaller percentage of the overall cost.
Smells like a Z level sell out of Serbia by another budding western quisling to me. That smell, why the smell of money of course. On a $3Billion deal like that, my corruptomatic gauge says Z would peel off at least $50 million.
DC diplomacy in its essence.
Even the Mad Monk Rasputin warned Czar Nicholas not to get involved in the lead up to WW I. Had Russia not stuck its nose in—WWI might have just been a small regional war between Serbia and Austra Hungarian Empire (Austria would have won). Lots of folks would not have died—no Hitler, No Nazis, etc...
You are correct. See post 11, please.
You can bet—the first plane will be sent to Moscow to be examined. The bond between Russia and Serbia can not be broken so easily.
Yep. Not to mention the Austro-Hungary “empire” was riven with nationalist dissension. It would probably have fallen apart on its own. Once Russia mobilized there was no stopping the catastrophe.
Serbia should be careful with any Patriot Missiles in their control, lest one or more of these 12 new aircraft get shot down.
We should already be 5 years into transitioning into pilotless aircraft and a large inexpensive drone air force of all kinds of craft from fighters and bombers to even tankers and surveillance. Making multimillion dollar fighters that need a human pilot are so very close to obsolete.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic represents Serbians like Joe Biden represents Americans: considerably less than half of them.
Hopefully, Serbians can elect a President who is on their side instead of on his knees to the West.
Ping to Honorary Serb and Lightman.
The deal will include a lot more than just the planes. Training, maintenance, spares. These things are sold in a package deal.
So what you're saying is that Serbia is going to have a plague of dirty Frenchman making trouble.l in their country for a long time. Not a good move.
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