Rafale's loss is another's billion-dollar fighter contract

Morocco's decision to reject the Dassault Rafale in favor of the Lockheed Martin F-16 is stunning even a week after it was confirmed.

G2 Solutions Michel Merluzeau, unquestionably the best French-born aerospace analyst based in Seattle, does some detective work to attempt to discern how Dassault and France could have lost the contract.

In the best english-language deconstruction of the situation I've read, Merluzeau finds that a mixture of arrogance, political distractions and poor teaming between government and industry conspired to rob Dassault of its desperately needed first export customer.

Read all about it here: http://www.g2globalsolutions.com/blog.html

And read Flight International next week, where we'll identify Dassault's next possible opportunity after India to make a deal for the Rafale.