Congress has decided to purchase these, off the shelf, from France! The warhead is designed and built by BAE, a UK company. The engine and the rest of the system are designed and built in France. It really isn't that much different from the US made Harpoon, which could be easily modified to be used as a medium ranged cruise missile to attack land targets. We guess this is just a sop to appease the bruised egos of the French.
Please keep in mind that these specs are from Wikipedia and those people are not always dependable about details and specs, however these appear to be pretty good.
Specifications
Weight 1230 kg
Length 5.1 m
Diameter 1 m
Warhead 450 kg BROACH (Bomb Royal Ordnance Augmented CHarge)
Engine Turbomeca Microturbo TRI 60-30 turbojet, producing 5.4 kN thrust
Wingspan 2.84 m
Operational
range over 250 km[1]
Flight altitude 30–40 m
Speed 1000 km/h
Guidance
system Inertial, GPS and TERPROM. Terminal guidance using imaging infrared
Launch
platform Tornado GR4, Italian Tornado IDS, Eurofighter Typhoon, Nimrod MRA4, Mirage 2000, Rafale and F35
We can.
Was this a low bidder sale ?
Do the French have an F35 contingency buy as an offset to our Storm Shadow purchase?
The answer to those questions are unknown.
DoD procurement doesn't necessarily rely totally on U.S. companies (as we see). There are a number of "arrangements" made with Allied nations in support of one another, both technically and economically.
(You have to look behind all of that outer space stuff)
there were three American consortium involve in the bidding, texas instruments/short brothers, and hughes/smith industries and mcdonnel/douglas, some of the other companies were rafael from Israel, Daimler-Benz Aerospace/Bofors, (now SAAB/Bofors)from Sweden, GEC-Marconi. in the end BAE/MATRA won the contract. as far as can tell, france has no plans to purchase any F 35 warplanes.
7 Comments
LittleDragon
Congress has decided to purchase these, off the shelf, from France! The warhead is designed and built by BAE, a UK company. The engine and the rest of the system are designed and built in France. It really isn't that much different from the US made Harpoon, which could be easily modified to be used as a medium ranged cruise missile to attack land targets. We guess this is just a sop to appease the bruised egos of the French.
From your friends,
LittleDragon and Send it Boi
charley9toe
BAE is a good company w/ some very bright people. Now, let's hope this thing goes BOOM when it is supposed to.
LittleDragon
ryo have also heard good things about BAE as well. the thing is why can't the US make a short to medium range cruise missile of our own ka
Your friend,
LittleDragon
LittleDragon
Please keep in mind that these specs are from Wikipedia and those people are not always dependable about details and specs, however these appear to be pretty good.
Specifications
Weight 1230 kg
Length 5.1 m
Diameter 1 m
Warhead 450 kg BROACH (Bomb Royal Ordnance Augmented CHarge)
Engine Turbomeca Microturbo TRI 60-30 turbojet, producing 5.4 kN thrust
Wingspan 2.84 m
Operational
range over 250 km[1]
Flight altitude 30–40 m
Speed 1000 km/h
Guidance
system Inertial, GPS and TERPROM. Terminal guidance using imaging infrared
Launch
platform Tornado GR4, Italian Tornado IDS, Eurofighter Typhoon, Nimrod MRA4, Mirage 2000, Rafale and F35
charley9toe
We can.
Was this a low bidder sale ?
Do the French have an F35 contingency buy as an offset to our Storm Shadow purchase?
The answer to those questions are unknown.
DoD procurement doesn't necessarily rely totally on U.S. companies (as we see). There are a number of "arrangements" made with Allied nations in support of one another, both technically and economically.
charley9toe
The last line would be the key. Allied interoperability.
LittleDragon
there were three American consortium involve in the bidding, texas instruments/short brothers, and hughes/smith industries and mcdonnel/douglas, some of the other companies were rafael from Israel, Daimler-Benz Aerospace/Bofors, (now SAAB/Bofors)from Sweden, GEC-Marconi. in the end BAE/MATRA won the contract. as far as can tell, france has no plans to purchase any F 35 warplanes.
Your friend,
LittleDragon