Saturday, February 04, 2012

France in the Lead

As India places its bet for air superiority in the face of Chinese modernization on the table with French currency, the Indian military should pay close attention to how the Rafale works--because they will see French systems on the other side of the mountain if shooting starts:

The Western arms embargo (because of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre) against China is crumbling. France is leading the way. European firms are particularly eager to drop the embargo, and some, like France, are ignoring it.

If India is hoping that their purchase of (an admittedly excellent) airplane from France that France desperately wants to sell will keep France locked into an exclusive arms relationship with India, they are mistaken.

Hopefully India doesn't get their hopes up about what France will or will not do. Do recall that France pulled out of the military arm of NATO just when we needed them the most during the Cold War. Nice, eh? And if Indians ever wonder how we can tolerate what Pakistan does as an ally, remember we have experience with this sort of thing.