February 21, 2006
HEY, NO FAIR!
Combat jets in Asia: India biggest buyer (Hindustan Times, February 17th, 2006)
When US aerospace giant Boeing Co won a bid last year to supply at least a dozen fighter jets to Singapore, its defeated French rival said America's superpower status had influenced the outcome.
They really shouldn’t feel too badly about this. They are well ahead in the race to bring opera to Hanoi.
Posted by Peter Burnet at February 21, 2006 6:52 AMBut the same article says that Singapore did buy french frigates, radars and missiles - so the french are not even bad losers, they just like to complain a lot and play the poor little victim while selling their submarines everywhere. Even the US is buying lots of European defense stuff, like Thales communications gear.
But I have to wonder how European companies are coming up with all these fairly good systems despite very low defense spending.
Posted by: werner at February 21, 2006 7:52 AMWerner, you answered your own question. Foreign sales, man, foreign sales. It isn't their own money that supports this stuff; its the receipts from foreign governments.
Posted by: Mikey at February 21, 2006 8:29 AM