Eurofighter Programme Update

Here are some up-to-date figures from Eurofighter official sources on EF programme status.

Type Acceptance for Tranche 1 Batch One standard aircraft (30) achieved on 30 June 2003. These are all twin-seat aircraft. The main supply of single-seaters will commence with Tranche 1 Batch Two deliveries (total of 117 aircraft), due for handover end 2004/early 2005.

IPA4, IPA5 and IS001 have already flown (in February, June and July 2004 respectively) – these aircraft are counted as part of Batch Two.

(30 and 117 were both figures quoted by Eurofighter, but Tranche 1 is supposed to be 148 aircraft…)

The Batch Two aircraft will introduce DASS, MIDS, improved CAPTOR functionality, initial sensor fusion (radar/MIDS/IFF) and initial DVI.

• 31 aircraft now delivered to NETMA, with another 25 in pre-delivery testing and acceptance process. Not all 31 are in service as some are retained for development tasks.
• EF now deployed to three of four operational bases – Laage, Moron, Grosseto.
• Date for UK deployment to RAF Conningsby is 1 July 2005 – however, as Case White flying is now well ahead of schedule this date may well be moved forward.

In Service Aircraft
Germany: GT001 – GT008
Italy: IT001 – IT005
Spain: ST001 – ST005
UK: BT001 – BT011 (excluding BT002 and BT005)

There are 13 aircraft in the EF flight test fleet:
DA 1, DA 2, DA 3, DA 4, DA 5, DA 7
IPA 4, IPA 5
ISPA 1 (BT005), ISPA 2 (IS001)
These 13 aircraft have recorded 3,129 test and development flying hours over 3,621 flights (since 1994). DA 1 is the highest timed aircraft and has now flown 500 flights.

Since August 2003 the four customers have flown over 1,300 flight hours. At Laage the eight aircraft in service with JG 73 have flown around 130 hours since operations commenced. At Warton, the RAF’s Case White aircraft have flown 500 sorties.

All remaining Tranche 1 aircraft are now in some form of production – with 44 aircraft in the final assembly phase.

Build work on all T1 sub-components has been completed. EF industry members are now facing a serious production gap as no Tranche 2 production sustainment contract has been signed.

Initial Tranche 2 deliveries are scheduled for 2007 but T2 timetable is under extreme threat. Final Tranche 2 deliveries SHOULD occur in end 2011 for Germany and Spain, and mid 2012 for Italy and UK. Without a finalised contract all dates are completely provisional. Industry is now building T2 aircraft without any official funding. This situation cannot continue for much longer.

Austria
Eurofighter now has about 32 months remaining before contractual delivery date of first four aircraft is due (May 2007). The UK has indicated that it will allocate delivery positions to Austria and slip some RAF aircraft to make this work. Continuing failure to sign the T2 contract makes any export guarantees to Austria or Singapore impossible – and the signed Austrian contract is under threat as a result.