It seems a long time ago that Muammar Gadaffi was the root of all evil, doesn’t it? Those were the good old days of “Freedom of Navigation” ops (remember the “Line of Death”?) and VF-32 Tomcats picking on kids coming off the short bus.
Of course, Gadaffi has done an “Abominable Snowman after the dental work” and made nice with the world, right? Well, Joe at DID has an interesting report about Libya’s recent outreach to … wait for it … FRANCE.
Here’s a bit:
Libya’s military has traditionally been Soviet supplied, alongside some equipment from France. The demise of the Soviet Union, the 1990s drop in oil prices, and Libya’s pariah status all combined to choke military modernization but Libya’s new political direction, and the rise in oil prices, are changing that. Unsurprisingly, there have been widespread reports in recent days that France and Libya have signed a Memorandum of Understanding covering arms deals worth up to EUR 4.5 billion, including the first foreign sale of the Rafale fighter. Has France learned the lessons of Morocco and Saudi Arabia? Can the Rafale find an export home at last? Will the deals come to fruition?
See the rest here.
Meanwhile, Christian and I are flying back from corporate headquarters on the west coast, so we’ll be post-light for the rest of today. See you for the Sunday Paper.
– Ward
Sell Libya all the weapons you want.If they don’t know how to take care of them,the weapons will just sit in the motor pools & tarmacs & rust.I’ve learned this with the ANC of South Africa.They’ve bought 3 diesel subs from Germany,but they can only man one.Besides that,they are so incompetent,they almost sunk one of their subs when they were sailing(I’m sorry,I don’t know the correct word or terminology for getting a sub from point A to point B on its own power) it from Germany to South Africa.If it wasn’t for the Afrikaner Commander the New ANC submarine would have went to the bottom of the ocean.The same goes with the Gripen fighter jets that South Africa bought from Sweden.If ANC run South Africa goes rogue,we don’t need to sabotage their war equipment,their incompetence is doing a good enough job of that on their own.I guess let this be a lesson on selling class A weapon systems to 3rd world nations,they’ll f*ck the weapons up every time.
The french would sell to Satan himself it they could make a buck. It is my opinion that the French are far more export oriented in their defense industry as they have a smaller domestic base to cover development costs. 300 Rafale fighters is not a lot to spread the development costs. By comparison, Eurofighter has 700 orders and F-35 will sell a few thousand. This raises the cost of the program as spare parts become cheaper as well as the production run increases.So the French will do anything to keep the program going…usually one plane gets several generations of improvements over 20–30 years and this is expensive to do on an ongoing basis as development costs never really cease.
Maybe the Rafale is destined to be a 3rd World jet fighter that will also find its way into the Brazilian & Argentine inventory.If you were to rank fighter jets between the JSF,the Eurofighter,the Gripen,& the Rafale,the JSF would rank No.1,the Eurofighter would be No.2,the Gripen would be No.3,& the Rafale would most likely be No.4.
Algeria is one of the most dangerous countries for a foreigner to visit.A decade before Nick Berg,people have been getting their heads cut off & their throats cut in Algeria.You also have the Islamic Brotherhood who have been blowing up & killing tourists since the 90s.When Al Qaeda started cutting heads off in Iraq & Saudi Arabia I said to myself,“this is nothing new,they’ve been doing that in Algeria since the 90s” which I imagine is news to a lot of people reading this today.
I need to qualify my statement about the Islamic Brotherhood,I meant the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt have been blowing up & shooting tourists in Egypt since the 90s.
Sorry…just don’t see the problem here. Since Libya came clean with the nukes and since they reportedly are helping with the war on terror I just view this as a reward for good behavior with the additional aspect of helping a long time ally prop-up its flagging defense industry. Concerning minor nations ability to support high tech weaponry, well again no big deal. Defense contractors are a part of the US military and I can’t imagine going to war without someone from Boeing, Sikorsky, Northrup or Grumman hanging around a ramp, tarmac or motor pool. Its just a fact of life in today service. Lastly, I wouldn’t be so quick to slam the South Africa Defense Forces or their technology base. BAE OMC is pumping out world beater vehicles and these are the same types that gave us the Rooikat, G-6 Howitzer, Ikwala(?) AFV and a really sweet attack helicopter. There Navy has never operated subs (I believe) so the growing pains there are to be expected.
Roy
are you from SA? you seem to know a lot about what is going down here, what you said is unfortunately true btw.
SA’s indigenous defense industry is a largely a product of afrikaner expertise amid heavy sactions during the 70’s — 80’s. A lot of the skillset has left, including a couple of my dad’s friends who left to work on the Appache in the States after working on the Rooivalk for Denel here.
With Jacob “showerboy” Zuma on his way to the presidency, I’m getting more and more worried about the future of our lovely country.
frankie,
I’m an American from the state of Georgia.I’ve been following whats happening in South Africa through Africancrisis.org & Africancrisis.co.za.I’m sorry for whats happening over there.I was one of the fools that bought into the idea of South Africa becoming a better country with Nelson Mandela as president after Apartheid.Unfortunately,now I see the same insane policies going on in South Africa that is happening in Zimbabwe.As things seem to be going in South Africa,it probably won’t be long until they are also considered a rogue nation.The only nation benefiting from all of this chaos in the whole African continent is China.Also,I’m most likely one of the few Americans who see whats happening over there.As soon as the World Cup comes up & national teams realize that they actually have to play over there & the fans refuse to come because of safety concerns,then you’ll probable see FIFA finally saying that enough is enough.
Libya’s defense is in need of attention. Purchasing from a regional source (France and Libya border the Mediterranean) makes sense.
Sorry…just don’t see the problem here. Since Libya came clean with the nukes and since they reportedly are helping with the war on terror…
I agree– its a little weird seeing Qadaffi labeled as benign– but by all accounts they have been cooperative. Better France gets some of that oil dough than Russia or China.