Recent content by Chestnut

It's not, it's literally a rip off much like the RAN's Attack-class Submarine program. When over 20 years of service in the French Air Force still only results in 55% availability rates and a price tag that exceeds it's competitors to beat, one can't help but raise questions if one were to...

China literally took over the the sovereign EEZ's of Philippines and Vietnam, with the latter having a president that was overtly pro-China at the time. There is absolutely no indication based on historical precedence that what you said is true.

You could really just chalk it up to the Indonesian mentality of "gampangin" at the end of the day.

Note that not everyone has god-awful counter drone/AD capabilities such as Armenia. There's a reason why it's hard to replicate the successes made by another nation state in one conflict when you're fighting in another.

The fact that the Rafale isn't used by the current security threat faced the the Indonesian Armed Forces comes pretty high on that list...

Just an FYI guys, for the past 20 years that the Rafale has been in service with the Armee D'el Air, the availability rates have never soared past 55%. If France can't keep them operating with their obviously larger budget, I don't know how the TNI AU (which historically had problems keeping...

Keep in mind that Dassault did withheld parts for the ROCAF's fleet of Mirage 2000s after being asked to by the PRC.

Because they are, they're just not going to admit it publicly due to political reasons. The only fighter that they made abundantly clear for the longest time now is the Block 70/72V. With the second choice being the the F-15E/EX or more FA-50's. Simply put, the TNI knows that the Rafale would...

And how do you expect us to pay not just for procuring it, but maintaining them to keep the flying? The Sukhoi's have a hard time getting flight hours just because they're so costly to operate. Are we just going to keep borrowing money just to keep Prabowo's prestige project flying?

If we ever want to replace the Leo 2's, I'd wager that the K2 is a better (And honestly more realistic) option over the Altay or the Abrams.

Nope

There is no downpayment to be paid. The Rafale "contract" that was signed was just an LoI/LoO saying that "we MIGHT buy the Rafale" in the near future. At no point are we obligated to actually buy or pay for them. People would really just follow the money trail. Exactly how are we supposed to...

Why outgun them? Honestly it's better if the Indonesian Navy has more bilateral/multi-lateral partnerships with Australia and her allies. The Chinese has shown that even countries that try to befriend them (Philippines) still get the short of of geopolitical diplomacy. And the Russian pacific...

How so? The US has clearly shown it is willing to give ToT to countries that buy their products. Look at Korea, Japan, Turkey, India, Israel, Taiwan, etc. And why is that? The Block 70/72 is an advanced fighter that is on par/supersedes a lot of other designs. The Viper is also already locally...

If you want to do that you would need to order more than 2 squadrons in one buy.