Saturday, October 24, 2009

DTN News: Kuwait Awaits French Offer On Rafale Buy

DTN News: Kuwait Awaits French Offer On Rafale Buy *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) PARIS, France - October 24, 2009: Kuwait is waiting to get an offer from France on Rafale strike fighters, Defence Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Hamad al-Sabah said Oct. 21 after a meeting with his French counterpart, Hervé Morin. The Rafale is a French twin-engine delta-wing multirole fighter aircraft designed and built by Dassault Aviation. It is being produced both for land-based use with the French Air Force and for carrier-based naval operation with the French Navy. The aircraft has undergone a protracted development, for mostly political and economic rather than technical reasons; the first demonstrator flight was in 1986 but the first production aircraft entered service only in 2002. No foreign sales have yet transpired. The Rafale carries, for the first time in aviation history, an integrated electronic survival system named SPECTRA which features a software-based virtual stealth technology. Kuwait would "be proud to have the Rafale in the heart of our armed forces," he said at a news conference on the signing of a defense cooperation agreement with France, the French Defense Ministry reported on its Web site. "We hope to have an offer soon on this subject," Sheikh Jaber said. The offer would be studied very seriously by the Kuwaiti Air Force, he added. Kuwait was also interested in French military technology for the Navy, air defense systems and helicopters, he said. President Nicolas Sarkozy said in February that talks with Kuwait on the prospective sale of 12-14 Rafale aircraft were "quite advanced." The strategic defense agreement between France and Kuwait covers exchange of information, assistance, training and equipment, and extends a previous accord signed Aug. 18, 1992. France opened a naval base in Abu Dhabi this year and is in talks with the United Arab Emirates on the sale of 60 Rafales, built by Dassault Aviation. The UAE, however, wants France to help find a buyer for its fleet of Mirage 2000-9 fighters.

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