[nickik]

To be honest I really can't see what exactly the Ariane 6 does better then Falcon 9/Falcon Heavy. I can not see how it has any chance in a commercial market, they will have to get government launches, but there are not enough.

Ariane 6 was a response to Falcon 9 first generation, and they designed it to compete with a Falcon 9 from 4 years ago, Falcon 9 is a different beast now.

Even launching 2 huge satellites is not gone work because there are fewer of those launches, and Falcon Heavy is getting a bigger fairing that could do that too.

[bryanlarsen]

Ariane 6 only makes sense if you view launch capability as a matter of national security.

[nickik]

Given that most nations in Europe are happy to launch on US rockets (as the Germans did), that really basically means the national security of France.

Seems to me its more of a jobs program that claims 'national security' as a reason.

[fragmede]

A "jobs program" that would have kept (more) manufacturing capacity of surgical masks in-country seems like it would have been a very good thing right now.