Comments by "Golag Is watching you" (@golagiswatchingyou2966) on "What is Europe's new MEGA Air Defense Project?" video.

From a pragmatic standpoint it's stupid to develop two different fighter aircraft for Europe, after all the USA develops one singular aircraft to become it's future main aircraft and either experiments with the next potential model or maintains lower production levels for older models like the F-16 or F-22 As for why, it's mainly to do with political and economic interests because if the two projects were to merge it could very well produce a superior aircraft and be more cheaply produced but then some military companies would have to merge some of their factories producing some of those parts, some would be bought out or have to merge whole production lines, people would have to be fired or be asked to move to another country to work on the project and test in the field, not to mention the potential loss of intelectual property and technology transfers. That being said I think with the war in Ukraine and seeing just how dominant the USA is in military fighter aircrafts and the economic costs and political issues around developing a new fighter program, I do believe eventually one side is going to make greater progress and show more potential for all sides that the other just becomes uncompetitive and will either stall and join or scrap the whole project to begin with and stay with the USA but in so doing they will lose out on domestic production. In my view I think the FCAS project has a better chance at winning out, simply due to the economic and political instability in the UK, the higher funds and scale of industry in the EU and Airbus and how two members of the tempest project are also part of the EU which means they likely would have more interests in staying in Europe then going with the UK and other foreign nations (Japan and Korea had some interests in the project but aren't clear on where they are going) The sooner one side wins over the other the better, hopefully they can speed up to something like 2035 or even 2030 if they worked together.
23
Problem is some companies would probably get the smaller stick in terms of producing the actual plane but perhaps some deal for compensation can go a long way, right now going into conflict over it is seen as the beter option but with more players into the project, potentially there be less tension because causing too much of an issue on small things could lead to a competitor taking that main roll from you.
4
It kind of won't, it will just be two aircraft that are less capable, more expensive and less flexible then the US F-35 or even their newest model. The most innovation in this market comes from having the capital, the industrial scale and the know how to make something that can compete with the US market, there is enough competition between Europe, China, Russia and the USA already, we don't need competition between Europe and Europe that will just backfire on quantity and quality.
3
@richardthomson4693 I'm not sure if France went out of the eurofighter just because it was not compatable with their aircraft carrier which is also weird because you could just make a variant for such purposes, the F-35 comes in different variants as well, probably more politically motivated rather then pragmatically motivated. nations getting F-35's is not an indication that they aren't interested in building their own fighter, simply the war in Ukraine makes it wiser to get something that's modern and actually done already now then to develop something 9-15 years down the line when you might need it now, it's not mutually exclusive. France and Germany already work on multiple goals together, Euro-drone I believe, Euro-tank as well, no reason they can't work with each other, thought there are issues for sure. USA does not want many plans of the F-35 to fall in other people's hands, if you make a deal for F-35 a lot of the secrets are kept in US hands and by US personal, trainers and engineers, that's a major issue for military hardware imports, there is a good video by Perun on youtube that goes into the whole process you probably would enjoy it. not sure how good the Tempest is going to be or if it's going to get started, UK does not look so fresh right now, Japan might pullout or focus on their own project, Sweden might be considering their options, basically both sides aren't very sure on what to do but I think in the end the FCAS program will be put forward simply because it's best for everyone, more funds and more talent to be poured into it compared to the Tempest, could be wrong but in terms of scale and economic power France and Germany have more to offer then the UK, Italy or Sweden combined.
3
@TheBenj30 Japan has zero experience in building their own fighter jet and actually are/were planning their own domestic fighter jet which seems unlikely now to go through. As for the UK, their main experience is with the Eurofighter, same as Germany and Italy, Sweden's Grippen is a less developed but cheaper aircraft compared to the Eurofighter. Tempest and FCAS have different goals in mind, Tempest is mostly just a new fighter aircraft, where as FCAS is a whole new system of multiple side projects to become intergrated with it, the scale of the project is much bigger and thus will take more time. Speaking of scale, the economies of FCAS and the EU are much larger then the UK or Japan, Italy is also part of the EU same as Sweden but they alone are not as big as the rest combined and also create friction with in-fighting and production issues and the scale of production growth is different. Once both projects are done, production for FCAS can scale up much more then Tempest, granted Tempest might take the place of Rafale as being a good choice for cost to quality for third world countries that does have a lot of potential profits for the project if that's their aim. Ideally I wished FCAS won over Tempest and we all just focused on one project for cheaper and better quality for all but perhaps that's only possible next development cycle. Of course maybe im wrong and FCAS will scale down and do more in-fighting over the next few years but same could be said for Tempest, we have to wait and see.
2