Eurofighter Typhoon challenges Dassault Rafale in UAE fighter procurement

By getting the United Arab Emirates to accept a counter offer of the Typhoon aircraft in a bid to purchase 60 fighter jets, the Eurofighter consortium has checkmated Dassault which was thought to be close to selling $10 billion worth Rafale jets to the UAE. The announcement that the UAE, which is in the final stages of talks with France on the sale of Rafale fighter jets, has invited Eurofighter to make a counter offer, was made by the Eurofighter consortium on Sunday at the Dubai Air Show 2011. The consortium said that the UAE had asked Britain, which leads the Eurofighter sales campaign, to provide it with information about the aircraft capacity, and that a briefing took place on October 17. "We have subsequently received a request for proposal for the potential supply of Typhoon," Eurofighter said of its fighter jet in a statement, without revealing any details about the deadline for submitting the proposal or for how many aircraft. French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet had said last month that Dassault was in the final stages of negotiations on the UAE purchasing Rafale fighter jets. Part of the negotiations between Dassault and the UAE involve taking back the Mirage 2000 fighters currently with the UAE Air Force. The Rafale and the Typhoon were recently involved in combat action over Libya, flown respectively by the French air force and navy and the British Royal Air Force with the former having flown a greater number of combat sorties. They are among the most prominent attractions at the Dubai Air Show here.