Legate Dralson, ex-Dino Army and Security CouncilWhen the Dinos said they planned to buy some jet fighters to take over some air defence and close support roles from Dinomarks the DDS and the Clones lined up to offer their F-10S Shark and F-45A Falcon respectively. It was generally assumed the Dinos would buy between 80-100 fighters, a decent and valuable defence sale but not the biggest.
However earlier this week the Dinos unveiled the full scale of their plan to buy (and build fighters) and it must have raised some eyebrows with the DDS and Clones (if the latter had eyebrows of course). The Dino Army plans no fewer than 250 fighters for Dino-Land as part of phase 2 with 150 more to follow for the other Dino Republic planets. With so many in Dino service it would then be highly likely other DTA members would also have the type.
This makes the programme highly valuable indeed and it could be the Clones will rethink their decision to offer the F-45A (a very good aircraft of course) but not their brand new F-45C. The Dinos say that they want to build most of the aircraft under licence with no more than 50 imported, but that would still make the programme worth billions.
The F-10S is still ahead i understand, the Clones may offer the F-45C but my sources tell me the deal clincher will be the TPM-A capability. Unless the Clones can get that missile to work with the Falcon (which will be difficult seeing as no TPM-As are available outside of the DDS at present) then it might be a straight forward victory for the DDS.
