There was a proposal in the early 2000s to merge the support for the Royal Airforce and German Luftwaffe as they used essentially the same equipment. It was loudly pooh poohed by noisy “Major-Gen Smetherington-Smythe (retired)” type characters in the Daily Telegraph who hadn’t yet discovered that the WWII had ended in 1945 and that the countries had been very close allies for the previous 50 years.
The one facility that they did manage this with was the training facility for tanks in Paderborn.
Gross
This is extraordinary.
https://x.com/larisamlbrown/status/1895037725562282203
Not surprising. The Pentagon doesn’t know what the future of the F-35 is, having made it the centerpiece of their material co-operation with their allies for about 15 years.
But you know, Hegseth is prioritizing getting those forms with gender identity out of circulation.
Odd, since it is a very good plane.
But yes, their priorities are very strange.
Amusingly, this doesn’t fit into a simplistic narrative that some have (which I too used to have in High School) of US arms industry pushing foreign policy more than being a tool for the state. That small point amuses me a tad, since some people will have issues explaining this. The real world is complicated. The part of the real world in the United States, is now complicated also with being insane, so hard to analyse without going crazy yourself.
Properly incredible.
“You want to buy our expensive and irreliable military stuff while impovering yourself and enriching us? Be warned, you shouldn’t.” 
But is this genuine? If yes, we live in strange times…
I think the insiders in question are well-meaning Americans around the defence establishment who are appalled at how their government is treating allies and are privy to some of the batshit craziness they are hearing behind closed doors from the Fox News hosts now running their government. The F35 cancellation is of course a matter of public record, Elon doesn’t like the F-35.
Switzerland have a command of 36 F35 for 2027. I still hold a bit of hope that this will be stopped, as there are big problems with this plane. Not only will they not be ready for 2027 (no-one knows when they will be delivered), but they might cost much more than what was agreed (around 30% more). And, when they will finally be delivered, they’ll have their engines to be instantly replaced, as they are irreliable. This will again cost a lot. An absolute mess.
Meanwhile, Dassault for instance constructs very well functioning Rafales, but our wise (read corrupt) ministers decided to ignore them, and bend over to the US. The cunts.
Canada also has an order, with an even longer delivery time. Ironically, were we to cancel the order the US would go ballistic, but there is active discussion of cancelling the F-35 program in the US. The USMC order looks very likely to be dropped. If that happens, the cost of the program per plane will balloon, and Lockheed-Martin will need to go to renegotiate with the non-US orders, or if the USAF orders are also questionable, quite possibly cancel.
The American insiders are likely people steering the UK from that kind of mess.
Germany were also meant to be buying the F35 as a replacement for the Tornado bombers. Of course, if the US pulls out of the bomb sharing agreement, it would make them somewhat redundant.
There it is. Saw some stuff earlier on how he’s bloated his wealth through SpaceX.
Being honest I’d rather trust Tom Cruise’s judgement on it 
Wrong thread sorry.
Again we learn (I too thought your take souded logical) that we must now realise that the US administration governs by feelings, “takes” as opposed to facts and knee-jerk oddball ideas.
Nevermind my now edited comment, you are obviously correct.
Holy shit, anybody who thinks that has never been anywhere near a friggin’ defence contract with a US supplier.
Speaking of Tom Cruise, he does his own stunts you know?
Didnt the last Trident test go as well as one of the first SpaceX launches? 
No idea, didn’t follow it. But I do know a guy who was one of the lawyers on Canada’ F-35 contract, and was involved from fairly early on as specifications etc were turned into a contract. He made several trips to Lockheed-Martin facilities, and on one visit they all got F-35 t-shirts. When he was reviewing the appendices he figured out the Canadian taxpayer was going to pay $70 per shirt for them.
The Grippen shirt was actually free.
Just a memory I have as it was highly public.
We’re ok, our seasonal Canadian defense force is arriving for the Summer months.
Why are you getting so irritate? I answered the OP in good faith, you jumped in on my opinion with a sarcastic retort, I don’t recall the OP or myself asking for your opinion on my post.
As I stated in my previous response to you, neither of us can predict the outcome/benefit to trade would be if we (the UK) rejoined the EU.
Look, I am happy to discuss your points further privately, to spare the other members our bickering but we would just go round in circles.
So let’s agree to disagree 