Rafales for Libya????

According to le Journal du Dimanche, Lybia will acquire from 13-18 Rafales. The total amount of the contract will be 2.5 billions euros. If this is confirmed it would be the first export order for the Rafale. Lybian pilots have tested the plane in december apparenty and since the acquisition of other western planes - us or british - was problematic they opted for the french aircraft. I wonder why Lybia has not opted for Su 30 or Su 35 instead. I'm also curious if this is going to affect the delivery of the aircraft for the French air force and if planes are going to be diverted to please the customers.
link in english

According to the Newspaper of Sunday, the French aircraft manufacturer is going to sell 13 to 18 devices for approximately in 2,5 billion euro.

did anyone see this, is it for real.

Rafale is a good choice. Its capable and because its young upgradable.

Originally posted by Jezza

did anyone see this, is it for real.

From Yahoo news

French aerospace group Dassault Aviation denied a press report that it was negotiating the sale of Rafale fighter jets to Libya.

"To date, there is no negotiation on this matter between the Dassault company and the Libyan authorities," a company spokesman told AFP.

"This type of matter belongs to the bilateral domain between the French and Libyan governments," he added.

The first 2 sentences indicate a denial - but the 3rd opens up the possibility that it wouldn't be Dassault doing the initial negotiations anyway.

Only the French would sell fighters to a country they had to take behind the wood shack TWICE whilst 'defending a national interest' in Chad. An action that began and ended with attacks on or by Libyan airpower at Quadi Dhom and with Tu-22 respectively.

Mind you, Operation Manta finished up nearly 20 years ago but it is worth noting that less than ten years ago, the Libyans were still busily putting the worlds largest WMD facility under-mountain at Tarhuna and it took a firm "NO. Or we'll Nuke your Ass." 'warning' to get them to cease and desist.

Myself, until we had (gaassssp, dirty words alert!) a 'Regime Change'; Libya could mummify in all it's dusty splendor before /ever/ owning another piece of Western 'Moral Supremacy Through Superior Firepower' military hardware.

I'm sure the approximately 100K dead Chadians who suffered the abuses of a rebel force backed by a professional military would agree with me, if only they could. You want to see the beginnings of the -regional- problems (Darfur etc.) that plague Sudan and Chad, you start in the 80s with Habre and Malloum, the Libyans and the bloody French who were too weak to maintain a defacto colonial defense but not to sell Mirage to the regional power that was threatening to usurp them.

Of course the global public, led along by their leftist media leash holders will politlely overlook something that 'happened so long ago'.

Whodda Thunk It: Half a Billion Years of divergent evolution later and 'Humans and Gold Fish, together again...'.

War is a business of self-generated disaster response.


KPl.