Eurofighter, without French participation as they have the Rafale, is actually quite a success. Thales is not really a competitor but rather a supplier of Airbu

Eurofighter, without French participation as they have the Rafale, is actually quite a success. Thales is not really a competitor but rather a supplier of Airbus with some overlap in defense electronics. The Airbus defense electronics have been spun-off to a large extent in the form of Hensoldt so. You underestimate how much leverage it gives the US of supplying the vast majority of NATO hardware. As ypu said, individual countries. If there are alternative programs to choose from, NH90 comes to mind, all the combined individual defense spending goes the US way. Which is quite nice, isn't it?