[Skybird]

Airbus was a French foundation, and the French in recent years made sure that key technology and knowledge pools remain under French administration at Airbus. The restructuring of the production locations and where what gets build, also speaks volumes. Many of the most future-potent items get produced in French factories, not German ones.

The Germans were wanted for putting money into it. Different to the French, the Germans were so kind to not understand that certain hightrech branches like nuclear energy and aviation technology are to be prioritized as technological key components in the industrial lineup of a nation that wants to be seen as a major player in global technology. The Germans are quite kind in these regards in principal. Many patents they refused to turn into money, and handed them away for free. And big companies form other countries then made the big money with it. Clever. The most famous, but not the only example, is the MP3 standard, an invention of the German Fraunhofer Institute.

Regarding Airbus, the Germans do not want to see it, but in French eyes they only are the money-waving junior partner. They never took the Germans as equals, and they never forgot that Airbus originally is a French foundation.

I fear sopmethign similiar in role playing if the palnned fusuon of the German and French tank makers becomes reality. The German company is superior in knowhow and experience, and its main product, the Leopard, also is superior to the Leclerk. If the fusion takes place, the French side will absorb the German knowhow, and the German side will get - nothing in return, just this promsie that German politicians made: that the french partners would open new markets for the propducts of the new tank maker. How could that be compensation...? Look at the customer list of the Leclerk, and then see how many Leopards get sold to how many countries, and then tell me that the Germans would benefit from almost non-existing markets for French tanks! Its the Leopard that rules the international market for Western tanks, not the Leclerk.