【Military Subplane】Author: Lele
On the 9th, Serbian President Vučić personally confirmed to the media that the Serbian Air Force will purchase 12 Rafale fighters from France, with a contract amount of 3 billion euros. What kind of concept is this, Serbia's military expenditure is only about 1 billion euros a year, and it is quite outrageous to spend three years on military spending to buy only 12 fighter jets. But there is no way, this money must be paid, and it is impossible for Serbia to "break out politically" without paying it.
▲ The export results of "Rafale" are indeed enviable
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was strategically located, was split into five countries. Shortly after the end of the Kosovo War in 1999, Montenegro also declared independence. Serbia now inherits only one-third of the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and if we include Kosovo, which is actually out of control, it is less than 30 percent. The most important thing is that Serbia, which has been discriminated against by European powers and has no access to the sea, has had a very difficult time in recent years, and has been trying to gain the support of the surrounding powers and live a peaceful life. In the end, marked by French President Emmanuel Macron's statement that "the future of Serbia lies in the 'European Union'", Serbia's "political breakthrough" has finally achieved initial results, and the vote paid is the purchase of 12 "Rafale".
▲ "Rafale" as a medium fighter, the performance is still good
The procurement of heavy military weapons has always been inseparable from politics. In recent years, the legal "Rafale" has received a lot of orders, among which in India and the Middle East, Russian-made fighters are outdated, and these countries hope to introduce relatively neutral French-made fighters, balance the American-made F-15/16, and avoid over-dependence on American weapons. And after 2020, the harvest of "Rafale" in the European market is quite political. So far, there are three European countries that have purchased Rafale: Greece, Croatia and Serbia, all of which belong to the Balkan countries. Among them, Croatia borders Serbia and is one of the six countries born after the dissolution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, while Greece is just south of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, bordering Macedonia (also one of the six countries born after the disintegration of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia). In other words, although only 42 Rafale were sold in Europe, all of them were crowded into the Balkans, and not for nothing.
▲Greece is the first European country to import Rafale
Greece, which pioneered the procurement of fighter jets, has a very typical European idea. Originally, it had 156 F-16s and 55 Mirage-2000s, which belonged to the coexistence of the United States and France, and the former had the advantage but did not cover all of them. Shortly after purchasing 18 Rafale in January 2021, it received permission from the United States to purchase 40 F-35As, and the pattern remains unchanged. Interestingly, Greece at that time, in order to get the Rafale as soon as possible, chose the model of 12 used models plus 6 new aircraft. That is to say, 12 early models will be rebuilt and delivered from the French army's active "Rafale", and the new aircraft will be delayed by two years. This makes the total price of 18 Rafale in Greece only 2.5 billion euros.
▲ The French Air Force has a lot of "Rafale" equipment
Croatia simply bought 12 second-hand Rafale for only $1.1 billion (about 1.024 billion euros). Serbia's economy is quite bad, and if you really like the "Rafale", you should also follow the example of the two "pioneers" and buy 12 used models. After all, the export of "Rafale" was not good in the early years, and the French Air Force was forced to purchase 10 years of early immature models, and now it is easy to take out 12 or 36, let alone take out 12 aircraft. However, Serbia went the opposite way, which shows that although the Rafale is urgently needed, it is the key to pay 3 billion euros. Although Serbia's financial resources will not be able to bear this huge amount of money even in installments, this is not critical, as long as the deal is made and the debt is realized, things will naturally have their way.
▲India bought another 26 carrier-based versions of the Rafale
Today, the Rafale is extremely beautiful, with a total of 299 orders since 2015, but who would have thought that at the beginning of this century, no one cared about it for 10 years. China's J-35, as a medium-sized stealth fighter with export use, has a bright future, but it has the problem of immature power and can only use transitional models in the early stage. In addition, when it first entered service, the performance of the J-35 was not yet mature, and it still needed time to hone to gain the trust of buyers, and the future experience of the "J-35E" may not be stronger than the early stage of the "Rafale". What people expect is that since the "Rafale" can gain a lot of orders in the Middle East because of the balance of American-made fighters, then the "J-35E" should also be able to achieve something after 2030. For those buyers who are shy in their pockets, the operation of the current "Rafale" transformation to second-hand is also very worthy of reference.