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Belgian Air Force to get 34 new fighters

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Gary
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Belgian Air Force to get 34 new fighters

Post by Gary » Tue Dec 22, 2015 6:30 pm

Belgian Air Force going to get 34 new fighters to replace the F-16
Agreement of the government: Cash Register, army and police under the Christmas tree

The government is going to buy 34 new fighter planes. The Manufacturer and model chosen have still not been communicated. The first aircraft should be delivered between 2023 and 2028. The Defense will also invest in two frigates and six minesweepers The investments could reach 9,2 billion, while the staff of the army will be gradually reduced to 25 000 people by 2030 instead of 32 000 currently.

6 Drones will also be purchased by the government. Two in 2021 and the four other later.
Finally, the average age of the military is expected to increase from 40 to 35 years by 2030 according to the minister of defence Steven Vandeput (N-VA).
Info translated from rtbf.be and the BAF Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Belgian-Air-Fo ... 3/?fref=ts
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Mike
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Re: Belgian Air Force to get 34 new fighters

Post by Mike » Tue Dec 22, 2015 6:33 pm

"Finally, the average age of the military is expected to increase from 40 to 35 years"

The translator got that bit wrong. :lol:
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Re: Belgian Air Force to get 34 new fighters

Post by Gary » Sat Jan 20, 2018 1:18 am

Bringing this thread back

F-35s for Belgium? U.S. State Department appear to think so. It was down to F-35 & Typhoon
U.S. State Department clears potential (and likely) sale of F-35s to Belgium
By: Valerie Insinna   2 hours ago

WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department on Friday pre-emptively approved a sale of F-35s to Belgium, opening the door to an expedited purchase once the country selects its future fighter.

The proposed deal, worth an estimated $6.53 billion, would cover 34 F-35A conventional takeoff and landing models made by Lockheed Martin and 38 F-135 engines manufactured by Pratt & Whitney.

It also includes electronic warfare systems, communications gear, a full mission trainer and Lockheed’s Autonomic Logistics Information System — which facilitates maintenance, mission planning and logistics — as well as other equipment, the Defense Security Agency stated.

While it’s uncommon for the State Department to green-light a weapons sale ahead of a final decision by a foreign nation, it’s not unheard of, particularly for high-profile deals with close allies. Most recently, the department ok’ed a sale of 18 Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornets to Canada this September, but a final agreement never materialized due to a trade dispute.

The F-35 is overwhelmingly considered the favorite for the Belgian fighter competition, which will replace the country’s 54 F-16s with 34 new jets. Should Belgium select the joint strike fighter, the total value of the deal will likely change after negotiations, as DSCA often puts forward a high contract estimate.

Competing against the joint strike fighter are the Dassault Rafale — which the French government is aggressively promoting — and the Eurofighter Typhoon, which is manufactured by a consortium of BAE Systems, Leonardo and Airbus.

The field had been much more crowded at the start of 2017, with Boeing vying to sell more Super Hornets and Swedish aerospace manufacturer Saab putting forward the Gripen E.

However, Boeing withdrew from the contest in April, saying that it could not fairly compete in a matchup skewed toward the F-35.

Then in July, the Swedish government crushed Saab’s chances, with Sweden its decision to abstain from the competition due to the fact that the government could not meet Belgium’s operational support requirements.

After Saab dropped out, Byron Callan, director of the Capital Alpha Partners investment consulting firm, predicted the F-35 would win.

“As one of the four countries that purchased F-16s in part of the ‘deal of the century’ in 1975, Belgium is the only country that has not yet reached a decision. Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have all selected the Lockheed Martin F-35,” he wrote in an emailed newsletter.
Info from https://www.defensenews.com/air/2018/01 ... o-belgium/

At Sanicole last year, F-35 were giving away some great baseball caps with the Belgian roundel on it :thumbs: nothing from Typhoon, F-35 won the PR battle. Unless you count Rafale who absolutely thrashed the others hands down
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Re: Belgian Air Force to get 34 new fighters

Post by Blackcat1 » Sat Jan 20, 2018 2:24 pm

In my opinion Rafale looks the best out of all of them lol
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Re: Belgian Air Force to get 34 new fighters

Post by capercaillie » Thu Jan 25, 2018 12:18 pm

F-52? :whistle:

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Re: Belgian Air Force to get 34 new fighters

Post by Gary » Thu Feb 15, 2018 3:10 pm

The process has finally begun
The government has given its approval on 17 March 2017 to start a purchase program so that our country can replace its air combat capability. In addition to the replacement of this air combat capacity F-16, our country is also requesting assistance with the operation of this new capacity until the end of 2030. For this purpose, the Defense organization will conclude an intergovernmental agreement.

On September 7, 2017 Defense received bids from 2 state agencies: the British UK Ministry of Defense representing Eurofighter Typhoon and the US Joint Program Office representing Lockheed-Martin F-35A. Over the past few months, there has been extensive contact between the purchasing team and the two state agencies in accordance with the procedure. The contact has enabled the state agencies to make their offers clearer.

Evaluation submitted tenders by experts

On 14 February 2018, the state agencies of the British UK Ministry of Defense representing Eurofighter Typhoon and the US Joint Program Office representing Lockheed-Martin F-35A served their best and final offer (BAFO) to the purchasing team for the replacement of our air combat capability. This initiated the evaluation phase of the procedure in which there will no longer be contact with the public authorities or companies. The tenders will be assessed on the basis of the evaluation method and the evaluation criteria described in the request for government proposal.

Dutch

Steven Vandeput: "The evaluation of the tenders itself is done by a team of 33 experts, divided into 7 teams, each of which will assess an evaluation criterion. The 30 experts from Defense were appointed by the Chief Defense, the 3 experts from the FPS Economy were appointed by the chairman of the organization. Each of the experts only has access to that part of the tender that he / she evaluates. To ensure consistency in the evaluations, the purchasing team, consisting of 5 people, has a supervising role ".

Evaluation manual under lock and key

The purchasing team has described the entire evaluation process in detail in an evaluation manual. The document was sealed in early September in the presence of the Inspector of Finance and is now kept in a safe. If so desired, the manual can be sent to the competent inspection authorities after completion of the evaluation.

What is it about? The evaluation criteria as stated in the Request for Government Proposal (RfGP) are too broad to be able to assess. Therefore, questions have been formulated for each criterion. These questions are not part of the RfGP but have been delivered to all state agencies. The specific gravity assigned to each question was not communicated to the state agencies but is described in the evaluation manual.

Earlier, the program team had already presented the same information to the Court of Audit, which after deliberation refused to accept the information.

The future

Steven Vandeput: "The purchasing team will merge the results of all evaluations and submit a proposal to the Inspector of Finance. Then I will go to the government with the file. No information from the bids will be announced during the evaluation phase. "


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Re: Belgian Air Force to get 34 new fighters

Post by Gary » Thu Mar 29, 2018 3:35 pm

More controversy for the whole procurement
The Belgian Air Component (Belgian Air Force) F-16AM/BM replacement programme became troublesome as it emerged that a document that leads to a much cheaper option had been deliberately hidden from the Government. The upcoming scandal resulted in the suspension of high ranking officiers and civil employees in service of the Air Component and the repacement programme. The document that now came to light reveals that the Belgian F-16s can get a service life extension programme so they can easily fly an additional six years, making a new fighter purchase less urgent than officials had previously contended.

The Minster of Defense, Steven Vandeput, told the country’s Government that he had not been made aware of the document about the potential life extension option.

The scandalous news comes just after Eurofighter/Leonardo and Lockheed Martin offered their Typhoon and F-35 to the country in a €3.6 billion ($4.35 billion) programme.

It is very well possible that Vandeput freezes or cancels the whole replacement programme, in which 54 F-16s must be replaced by 34 new fighters. An inked contract was expected in 2019, but now "just" a Fighting Falcon life extension programme is very well possible.


#BelgianAirComponent #BelgianAirForce #F16 #F16FightingFalcon F-16 F-16 Fighting Falcon #avgeek #aviation
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Re: Belgian Air Force to get 34 new fighters

Post by Gary » Fri Jun 15, 2018 1:14 pm

Looks like the deadline has been pushed back to October
Government is going to thoroughly review French proposal for replacement F-16s by October At the press conference after the Council of Ministers, Prime Minister Charles Michel (MR) has just made it clear that the French proposal for the replacement of the Belgian F-16s must and will be thoroughly investigated. The deadline for the Navotop on 11 July will be replaced by 'mid-October'. Today at 12:52 Domestic "The government will request more information about the French proposal and then look at all aspects." The prime minister outlined three options: the extension of the old F-16s, the purchase of one of the two aircraft participating in the request for government proposal ( RFGP), the Eurofighter or the F-35, and third option, the French proposal to buy Rafales and join the development of the fighter of the future. 'We have to make a serious and meticulous analysis', according to the Prime Minister, who spoke, although Defense Minister Steven Vandeput (N-VA) was also present.

Yes No

At the moment, the government does not have detailed information about exactly what France has to offer. Consultations were held at the cabinet of Minister Vandeput with representatives of the French Minister of Defense. They explained that Belgium can become a partner in the cooperation with Germany for the development of a new generation of fighter planes, that France can deliver 34 Rafales within the planned envelope of 3.6 billion and that in that case we can also use their aircraft carrier. But technical details about the Rafales themselves, let alone which version of the device offers France for sale, are not available for the time being.

A clear answer to the question of who should examine these thousands of pages of technically detailed information did not come. "We still have to look at that," Vandeput said, shrugging his shoulders as he walked out. According to the prime minister's spokesman, experts appointed by the cabinets would have to do the job. In a first analysis, they may mainly examine what is legally possible at all. An exercise that has been taking care of well-being games between legal experts for a few months.

Deadline in October

It is still striking that the unofficial deadline of 11 July, when a Navotop takes place in Brussels, is completely unloaded. "The offers from the Americans and the British in the context of the RFGP are valid until mid-October," said Michel. The calendar thus completely coincides with the municipal elections, on 14 October.
Translated from http://m.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20180615_0 ... o-a-friend
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Re: Belgian Air Force to get 34 new fighters

Post by Gary » Sun Oct 21, 2018 1:11 pm

According to Scramble, the decision is likely due at the end of the month
Belgian perils concerning the F-35A over Typhoon

On 19 October 2018, it was reported by Reuters that the Belgium Government is likely to decide which fighter jet to buy to replace its ageing F-16s by the end of this month.

In this, it looks that the Lockheed Martin F-35A is favourite over the Eurofighter Typhoon. Back in July, a decision was already expected but the word was postponed due to concerns about a report on the life-span that could be extended of the current fleet of 54 F-16s and a biased point of view of the Belgium Air Force.

Now, the US Government extended the terms of their tender to Belgium from 14 October through 31 October 2018. By putting some extra pressure on it... after the 31st the unit price of the stealth fighter will change as a possible sale will influence the Lockheed Martin production line and the quotations of the F-35s subcontractors.

The Belgium Government has indicated that a decision on the choice of warplane is likely this month. The Minster of Defence, Steven Vanderput said that he hopes to make a decision before year’s end. The Government aspires to make a decision on replacing the F-16s before a national election in May 2019.

The Eurofighter countries (Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain) are also in a strong lobby to win the order while France is still squinting around the corner with their Rafale. The French Government with Dassault did not submit a formal bid for the Rafale but offered Belgium close defence cooperation.

Let's wait and see!

Report, sharedReuters/ Scramble
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Re: Belgian Air Force to get 34 new fighters

Post by SpilsbyPete » Sun Oct 21, 2018 1:57 pm

If I was a betting man.
I would have my money on NO F-35's and a purchase of a European Aircraft.
Then they could work with the Dutch F-35's

BTW.Did anyone see the Typhoon mock up at KB in Sept with Belgium roundels

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Re: Belgian Air Force to get 34 new fighters

Post by Gary » Mon Oct 22, 2018 6:23 pm

Belgian's as expected , have gone for the F-35 https://www.reuters.com/article/aerospa ... SL8N1X21WS
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Belgium chooses F-35 over Eurofighter

Post by Ravendriver2008 » Mon Oct 22, 2018 6:24 pm

Apaprently the word on the street is Belgium has chosen the F-35 over the Eurofighter

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-aero ... SKCN1MW1J7

https://theaviationist.com/2018/10/22/b ... ing-f-16s/

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Re: Belgian Air Force to get 34 new fighters

Post by The Phantom » Mon Oct 22, 2018 6:34 pm

Blackcat1 wrote:
Sat Jan 20, 2018 2:24 pm
In my opinion Rafale looks the best out of all of them lol
I'm with you Gareth :thumb:

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Re: Belgian Air Force to get 34 new fighters

Post by Blackcat1 » Mon Oct 22, 2018 8:45 pm

Cheers Phantom
Gareth

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