"Boeing informed the Belgian government that it will not participate in its bidders conference today, nor respond to the request for proposals for a new fighter aircraft," (the "Request for governmental Proposal", RfGP), sent last month by the Belgian Ministry of Defense to five state agencies - two American and three European - each representing a type of aircraft, the US company said in a statement to the Belgian news agency Belga.





"We regret that after reviewing the request we do not see an opportunity to compete on a truly level playing field with the [...] F/A-18 Super Hornet." the company added, describing the aircraft as "extremely capable" for its cost effectiveness.



Belgium approved in last December the purchase of 34 new fighter aircraft to be acquired from Spring 2018 for an amount of 3,573 billion euros.





Only four platforms are still competing: Lockheed Martin’s F-35A stealth fighter, the Rafale F3R from Dassault Aviation, the Eurofighter Typhoon proposed by the eponym European consortium, and the JAS 39E/F Gripen manufactured by the Swedish company Saab.