After French President Emmanuel Macron called for offering those who buy the Patriot a new SAMP/T NG, and buyers of the F-35 – Rafale it is important to find an answer to a very important question.
And no, we are not talking about technical characteristics, because the fifth-generation fighter is still at a different level compared to even the very advanced 4+.
And the capabilities of the new SAMP/T NG should only reach what the Patriot PAC3 has long been able to do, for example, shoot down the Kh-47M2 “Dagger”.
And not even about the price, when the new Rafale in 2024, using the example of the last firm contract with Serbia, costs 225 million euros each. And the cost of a similar comprehensive agreement of the 2024 model for the F-35 on the example of the Czech Republic is $ 208.3 million.
We are talking about the pace of production, that is, simply the availability of the weapons themselves in order to acquire them.
As for Dassault Aviation’s production of its Rafale fighter, its pace has been known for a long time. The production plan for 2025, which was officially announced in the company, is 25 units per year.
And of course, there are plans to speed up the release of the Rafale many times over, because the queue for it is already at the age of 9. And, as the head of Dassault Aviation, Eric Trappier, noted, it will take at least two years to increase the pace of production.
But in general, there are plans to increase the pace even to 60 aircraft per year, which will require a similar acceleration of production by all contractors and subcontractors.
That is, despite all the desires, any multiple acceleration of production is really painstaking work and it goes along the vector from bottom to top, from suppliers to final production. That is,
the real competition of the Rafalez with the F-35 simply in terms of production capacity is rather arbitrary, because Lockheed Martin plans to produce up to 190 F-35 fighters in 2025.
As for SAMP/T NG, it is simply impossible to estimate the pace of its production, because it is not yet produced. Production of this new air defense system should begin only in 2026 to the French armed forces.
According to the well-known plan, 8 SAMP/T NG should be delivered by 2030, and another 4 by 2034. And of course, this cannot serve as a marker, because this is just the only currently firm contract for this air defense system. Although there was some interest in it from Belgium, it did not develop into specifics.
But it is quite difficult to say that the SAMP/T air defense system competed with the Patriot at all, because apart from the developing countries, that is, Italy and France, the only country that purchased it is Singapore.
Two such air defense systems were ordered in 2013 along with 200 missiles for $651 million. The transfer of the first complex took place at the level of 2017-2018, but full combat readiness was achieved only at the end of 2023.
It is worth noting that it is extremely important to understand what the pace of production of missiles before SAMP/T, and we are talking only about the Aster 30, also does not differ, because in the end they are tied to the number of operators, even taking into account the fact that this missile is used in shipborne air defense systems from Sylver A50 launch cells (a total of 30 ships in 6 countries). From what is known, in 2023, a several-year contract was signed for 700 Aster 15 and Aster 30 missiles without specifying the exact timing of implementation and the distribution of particles between the missiles.