Between February 13 and 17, 2003, all four manufacturing countries of the Eurofighter consortium the first production aircraft, all two-seaters by the way. Almost 17 years later, the last two production aircraft from the basic framework agreement are about to be delivered – one each to the Spanish and Italian air forces. Great Britain and Germany already took their last aircraft into service in September and December. Excluding the Tranche 3B not implemented by the four nations, a total of 160 went to the RAF, 143 to the Air Force, 96 to the Italian AMI and 73 to the Spanish Ejército del Aire. In addition, there were 15 for the first export customer Austria, 72 for Saudi Arabia, 12 for Oman, 28 for Kuwait and 24 for Qatar. The jets for the latter two orders will be supplied over the next few years starting this year. Construction will continue in Warton, Manching, Caselle and Getafe, with final assembly taking place in Caselle and Warton. This brings the total to 623 aircraft – a figure that no modern, non-American fighter aircraft in recent history has achieved.
And there could be more: In Europe, the Eurofighter is currently competing for new orders in Finland and Switzerland, incidentally as a possible replacement for F/A-18s in both countries. An abrupt “hole” or even an end to production is also not to be expected because Germany will soon be signing for 38 more Tranche-3s (a late German Tranche-3B, so to speak), which are to replace 32 aircraft from Tranche-1. In addition, all German Tranche-2 and -3 aircraft are to be converted to the electronic beam-swiveling AESA Captor-E radar under the “Quadriga” project. Subsequently, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is also to make a fundamental decision this year on the Tornado successor from 2025, which could – theoretically, the F-18EF/FG is also in the running – mean another 85 multi-role EFs, plus 12 to 24 as special versions for electronic warfare with large jamming tanks at the wing center stations. The manufacturer has already come up with the name Tranche 4, and an LTE (Long Time Evolution) study worth around 50 million euros was awarded at the 2019 Paris Air Show. This study will examine the integration of new technologies, artificial intelligence, a new human-machine interface, cyber security and the necessary increase in EJ-200 engine performance by around 15 percent by the end of 2020.
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