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France's Rafale program is usually considered to have been very competently managed. Of course it's quite a bit older than the F-35, as the program started in t
by Xixi 7y ago
France's Rafale program is usually considered to have been very competently managed. Of course it's quite a bit older than the F-35, as the program started in the early 80s. But it has been mostly on time [1], on budget and on spec. This is despite sharing some of the complexity of the F-35 in that it replaced most previous aircraft types in use in the French air force (a true multi-role aircraft), and even has a carrier capable version (CATOBAR, not VTOL). It's basically equivalent to making the F-35A and F-35C, without the F-35B.
Of course, having only one nation in the program helped a lot keeping the specifications consistent over time. I strongly doubt the NGF currently being developed with Germany and Spain is going to be that smooth...
[1] delays were incurred by the end of the Cold war: the so-called peace dividends, resulting in military budget restrictions.
- Glawen 7y agoIt definitely is a competently managed program, as were the mirage programs. However if you look at the a400m or eurofighter programs, you see delays and budget overruns. The issue lies in the spec creep by the funding parties of these programs. For example the french took deliveries of the first a400m because they needed the plane, but it could not drop parachutists in the first version !
- Xixi 7y agoAlso note that the makers of these three products are completely different. The Rafale was helmed by Dassault, the A400M by former CASA (Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA in Spain, now part of Airbus) and the Typhoon by what I believe is a former part of British Aerospace (now also part of Airbus). Airbus really is a collection of companies, so it can be hard to figure out exactly which part does what. I hope Dassault remains the project manager on the NGF, although in the end spec creep really is the biggest program killer...
- greedo 7y agoRafale was doomed to be too expensive due to the limited production run. This makes it hard to sell to other countries.