Tuesday 15th of May 2018, France, represented by French delegation from Minister of Army of Florence Parly, went to Belgium in order to have discussions with Defense ministry about a strategic partnership to replace his current F-16 fleet by a Rafale fleet from French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation and also to give more details about French proposal to Belgium to be part of the Future Combat Air System (SCAF) program, which is the program that should allow Europe to keep sovereignty over Defense market.
As Rafale from Dassault is begining a new phase of development from standard F3 to standard F4, France and Dassault propose to Belgium another kind of offer which would allow Belgium to be part of discussion around future development of the Rafale whereas competitors are closed meaning there is no negotiation possible around the aircraft for the F-35 from Lockheed Martin and the Typhoon from European consortium Eurofighter.
French Army wants also to build a deeper relationship with Belgium by giving them the possibility to be part of SCAF program but also to open doors of French sky to train their pilots on Rafale jet plus open doors of French carrier Charles-De-Gaule that would be profitable for Belgium as most of their mission are the same as France and would permit them to mutualized forces.
Belgium began in March 2017 the purchase process of 34 combat aircraft to replace the old F-16 fleet. It's a 3,4 billion euros business.
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