Can nobody clip the wings of this Euro turkey? (On the Eurofighter)

Times Online ^ | July 13 2002 | Matthew Parris

[knighthawk]

There goes the European unity.

PS: buy American.

The Netherlands Joins Ambitious Fighter Project (JSF)

[knighthawk]

Ping

[knighthawk]

Almost forgot you.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Looks like the French borrowed a lot of the Eurofighter for the Rafale.

[knighthawk]

Mai non! It haz got some pointy thingz the EFA has not! And look azt the boring coleurs of the Inglish plain. I spit in the general direction of these Inglish, they got no sense of nice coleurs. Mon dieu!

[CarolinaCurmudgeon]

What ever happened to the Panavia Tornado?

[Aaron_A]

Actually, the Rafale probably has more from the Mirage 4000 (initial test bed) than the EF2000.

[Southack]

"It is within our power to cut the number of aircraft we promise to buy. The Chancellor could do that next week. And I bet he doesn’t."

The writer is an idiot. Cutting the number of planes changes nothing except how many planes the English get. The "sunk costs" for the development remain the same, and that's what they are really on the hook for, especially since most of that money has already been spent.

That said, the euro-Fighter was always a bad idea and a collossal waste of money, meant only to assuage some fragile egos by showing that they could develop a firstline fighter just like the Americans and the Russians.

[Southack]

That would only be true if they brought Russia into the project ten years ago. Now they've already spent their development money and it's time to start production. There aren't any cost-saving plans around that will save the development money that they've already spent.

[The KG9 Kid]

No kidding.

The Eurofighter was obsolete on the drawing board.

[The KG9 Kid]

That looks like the unselected runner-up design that competed against the XF-16 back in the mid-70s when white men had Afros, wide collars, and bell bottom polyester disco slacks.

[Southack]

"That looks like the unselected runner-up design that competed against the XF-16 back in the mid-70s..."

Funny how that works.

[uglybiker]

The silly Euro's could have Russia contribute and bring the costs waaaayyyyyy down.

I dunno. I think the Russians can find other target drones that don't cost near as much.

[Smile-n-Win]

The Euros seem to have an irresistible desire to make their own versions of everything, paying meticulous attention to removing all the good things from the foreign--probably American--version, and including an assortment of unnecessary frills that only hamper its operation.

Although I'm a European myself, I've been completely unable to figure out what kind of sense this makes. Well, I guess my thinking is just not sophisticated enough for this continent...

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

nineteen billion pounds... Nineteen thousand million pounds

I'm confused, Click and Clack say there are no millionaires in England.

billion (bîl´yen) noun
Abbr. b.
1. The cardinal number equal to 10^9.
2. Chiefly British. The cardinal number equal to 10^12.
3. An indefinitely large number.

[French, a million million : blend of bi-, second power. See bi-1 and million.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from INSO Corporation; further reproduction and distribution restricted in accordance with the Copyright Law of the United States. All rights reserved.

[Smile-n-Win]

I'm a European

Duh, make that "I live in Europe." I hate being referred to as a "European" ! :-)

[ContentiousObjector]

I dunno, when are we going to clip the wings of the Osprey?

Killing an irrational military program is virtually impossible anywhere on earth, look how much trouble it was to kill the crusader

[Smile-n-Win]

I'm confused

Actually, it's the British who are confused about how to refer to 10⁹ (billion or thousand million?), and what the word billion means (10⁹ or 10¹²?).

Just like they are confused as to whether they are British or Europeans. Whether they want to continue to measure distances in miles or convert to kilometers. Whether they want to continue to use their own money or convert to euros. Whether they want to be free or live in Socialism. I wish they made up their minds--these questions are such no-brainers!

[Shermy]

They got their own military-industrial complex. Just like us!