Germany has formally signed a contract for 20 new Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft in a deal that reinforces its long-term commitment to European air power and the continent’s defence industrial base.
The agreement was concluded at Airbus’s final assembly site in Manching, southern Germany, between the leaders of Eurofighter and the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency (NETMA).
The new aircraft, scheduled for delivery between 2031 and 2034, will replace a portion of the German Air Force’s ageing Panavia Tornado fleet as it is phased out of service. This latest order adds to the 38 Eurofighters already procured under Germany’s Project Quadriga, representing a continuing effort to modernise the Luftwaffe’s fast-jet capability.
Jorge Tamarit-Degenhardt, Chief Executive of Eurofighter, said the contract “is excellent news for the Eurofighter programme and our industrial partners, as the programme closes in on the historic milestone of one million flying hours.” He added that the order “underlines Germany’s long-term commitment to sovereign European air power,” ensuring production continuity, preserving critical skills across Europe’s defence supply chain, and reinforcing the continent’s ability to defend itself for decades to come. With a projected service life extending well beyond 2060, Tamarit-Degenhardt said the aircraft’s advanced technical capabilities would “allow full integration into Europe’s future air combat environment.”
Airbus will equip the new Tranche 5 Eurofighters with the latest sensors, including the E-Scan radar, a major enhancement that will improve detection, targeting, and electronic warfare performance. In parallel, Airbus will integrate Saab’s Arexis electronic warfare suite across the German fleet, further enhancing the aircraft’s survivability and versatility in contested airspace.
Air Vice Marshal Simon Ellard (ret.), General Manager of NETMA, described the contract signing as “a proud moment” that followed extensive collaboration between nations and industry partners.
“The new order underscores Germany’s commitment to the Eurofighter programme and will ensure NATO remains agile and dominant in the air domain,” he said. “The 20 Tranche 5 jets and 52 EJ200 engines will safeguard German and European skies and will sustain and strengthen the continent’s defence industry for decades.”
Germany’s purchase follows new contracts signed by Spain for 25 Eurofighters and Italy for 24 at the end of 2024, continuing a pattern of renewed European investment in the aircraft. The Eurofighter programme, the largest collaborative defence effort in Europe, supports more than 100,000 jobs across 400 companies.
What George’s piece doesn’t say, is these 20 new Tranche 5 Typhoons will be the electronic attack versions, i.e. the Eurofighter EK, to replace the Tornado ECRs. Germany are also converting 15 legacy Typhoons to the same standard.
An interesting piece is the quote: “In parallel, Airbus will integrate Saab’s Arexis electronic warfare suite across the German fleet, further enhancing the aircraft’s survivability and versatility in contested airspace.” How does the EuroDAS Praetorian fit into this, which is in the process of being upgraded? Arexis is used on the Gripen E/F, but will also incorporate Spear-EW as an expendable decoy. I can’t remember if this is a podded add-on or is built in to the Gripen. But in trials, has proven to very good, even spoofing a few F35s.
The 35 typhoon EKs will give Germany a very good electronic attack capability, on top of the F35s they are getting.
The F35s are primarily fore nuclear strike for the US weapons sharing. Like the UK. There is no mention of them getting Radar MK3…
Can someone explain if UK industry benefit from this?
Yes, parts will be manufactured here and sent to Germany.
Yes. 37% of all Typhoons are built in the UK
Compared to the 15% ish of the F35 which is so much better.
Do you know how much of the Gripen is UK built, by value?
According to SAAB 37% of parts for the Grippen are manufactured in the UK, value wise it would probably add a few billion to the UK economy
Thanks. I’ve seen several claims between 25% and 33% by value and wondered if it rivalled the Typhoon in it’s Britishness.
35% of Gripen components/parts come from the UK. Saab website.
A bit of extra work coming this way too then. Fingers crossed we order a few ourselves soon.
Great that we have to rely on our other partners in the programme to keep our factories going. Or do I mean painful.
…. mind you I guess in their own way it means they are (indirectly) contributing towards Tempest which is very kind of them.
Pity there is no UK order in the pipeline
Agreed. At least these European orders will keep BAE factories going in short term
Parts and sub assemblies but not final assembly.
These are apparently coming into German service 2031/34 the uk plans to replace typhoon from 2035 with tempest but I will eat my pants if they do come into service at that date
I suspect they will start retiring Typhoon from 2035 regardless of whether Tempest is ready or not; they will use Grob Tutors to cover the capability gap
Hard to fathom why more UK orders have not been placed yet, even if the government is convinced they will win further exports from Turkey, Saudi and Qatar the UK.
Are the Tranche 2 and 3 airframes currently in UK service all going to be updated to this Tranche 4 standards with upgraded radar, cockpit displays and defensive aids?
Nope – Tranche 3 only will be upgraded.
Simply no requirement and funding for them, all available funding is committed to the Typhoon Upgrade programme and expanding the F35 Fleet.
And TEMPEST
Even some additional conversion upgrades of existing UK frames. Seems an opportune time with Italy, Germany and Spain adding to their Typhoon fleets while the UK waits for more F35Bs, F35As and Tempest.
So that’s 58 new Typhoons, and 35 F-35s, ordered in recent years for Germany. 93 new airframes.
Meanwhile the UK has just swapped 12 F35Bs for 12 cheaper F35As… I wasn’t always a cynic, but it’s hard not to be these days…
Don’t worry, while Germany focuses on improving it’s air, land and sea capabilities UK defence commentators will praise us for focusing our defence on the Fleet services, thereby securing the A303 from Russian aggression and protecting NATO’s Salisbury flank.
Fleet Services is on the M3 !
Way closer to Londonistan than Sarum .
Fleet needs nuking.
(Just kidding)
Naughty but nice!
How about another 30 Typhoons for the RAF. If they are getting short of parking space at Lossie and Coningsby then expand Leeming
Sounds like good old common sense. Especially if Tempest is up to 10 years away and F35B weaponry and numbers are limited. And maybe some more E7s. Question, why our allies adding to their fleet now and the UK isnt?
Because we’re broke – simple as that.
We’re broke because the Govt doesn’t understand growth economics and prefers to pour money into the public sector.
No we are broke after 14 years of inept Tory rule with Truss and Brexit being the main feature along with austerity which decimated EVERYTHING .
It will take years to fix not 12 months.
Taxing everything that moves doesn’t drive a growth mindset. At least Truss knew that.
So as I see it that is 199 typhoons and 35 F35Bs for 234 aircraft..if only the RAF could have that number.
F35A not b
Well originally it was supposed to be 250 then it dropped to 238 then 160 (or thereabouts) so hopefully Tempest will be 300 in number and we might get 50.
As many as 50 you optimist you!
Sorry, It was a Typo, I meant 5 ! 😁
!!!!. I’ve lost my emoji’s.
Is that what they are calling it now 😂😂😂
Yep, but thanks for the funnies mate.
It would be lovely to order more for the RAF, but in the absence of any serious budget increase, it simply won’t happen.
Labour talk about, but do sod all. We should be spending 3% right now and building to 5% by 2035.
When more money ‘eventually’ does come, it will be pumped into Tempest and probably more F35A.
More money from where? The country is fcuked, it’s done. 👍🏿
It’s a question of spending priorities I suppose..
Labours back benches currently have control of what happens, Starmer is a lame duck and his MP’s will likely block any significant increase, little prospect of that charging any time soon.
The country has money, it’s what it does or does not spend it on and who it goes to. If your being utterly brutal and honest we spend a mean of £10,000 per person just on hospital care for over 65s in the last 3 months of life. We spend about £35,000 in the that last year… and yet up to that point the average cost is about £1800 per person per year… the truth is we are not helping or being humane when we aggressively treat people in their 70s when they have huge numbers of chronic conditions.. we just essentially make them suffer for a few more days or weeks and actually increase that suffering. But we culturally cannot accept we are all going to die today, tomorrow or another day and we pay for that lack of acceptance in money and unnecessary suffering..so just stopping the ( what I consider cruel and slightly immoral ) over active treatment of the elderly and dying would give you enough to buy about 30 type 31 frigates a year ( probably about 10 billion pounds).
And that has nothing to do with political classes and everything to do with the public, because every time the NHS has tried to be honest with the public about death and dying it gets hammered for being “uncaring and cruel” ( the Liverpool care pathway as an example).
As it stands, it’s hard to predict in advance which the last 3 months of life are. I supposed if you just stopped treating people, you would increase your guess %age impressively.
It is a difficult conversation.
There are commentators on here who have lost parents; as I went overseas, my father gave me the only hug I can actually remember before meeting his death sans chemotherapy.
Mum has had dementia since 2013(?) and today does not recognise people and will not recover but doesn’t want to die…
There is a time when we have to let go, like my father did, I do hope I have his resolve in my heart.
💕💕
Sadly it’s a conversation that we have not yet properly had. There is a fundamental truth that we sometimes forget. Life is not living, now we seem to be very happy to have the difficult conversation about people with capacity choosing to end their lives early.. we are happy to not see our dogs suffer unnecessary or likely pointless treatment, but we don’t have the conversation about inappropriately extending existence and pointless treatment and suffering in the people we love. I’ve vast lived experience of extending people’s existence and as I look back with wisdom I realise what I participated in was sometimes profoundly wrong.. instead of saving lives on many occasions I help extend suffering.. but we very rarely question why and the reality is a relative who loves the partner or child just wants them to live, the healthcare professionals want to succeed in doing their job, that is understandable, but the relatives generally have no reference of understanding around what that really means..and healthcare professionals generally follow the consensus of intervention, don’t get me wrong I have seen miracles ( a person who was dead and pronounced dead leaving hospital and going home.. but for every one of if those happy events I’ve seen far large amounts of vast suffering extended for days weeks and months..so my question what cost in opportunity costs ( resources taken from other things like good rehab good end of life palliative care ) and increased suffering do we pay for the miracle ?
Life is very hard and you can only do your best , with care and compassion for yourself and those around you ❤️
“One Life, Live It”.
I have that written on all my vehicles.
Something that continuously amazes me. So the first delivery of these aircraft will only take place SIX years from now. As with the TSR2 story from which we old folk elicit much groaning at the mention from you lighties (Saffer word for younger people) dare I say-what happened to Spitfires at a dozen a week? The question is of course rhetorical as we do understand but the stark and simple fact is that modern Air Forces that urgently need extra numbers simply cannot get them!! If we have an emergency in the short term we are stuffed!!- we are stuck with only 100 Typhoons which could disappear in a couple of weeks! What to do? Why does it take so long and what if anything can be done about it?
Basically beyond the complexity issue ( and they are profoundly complex) you have the sustainability question.. you cannot boom bust this type of industry as the workforce takes years to develop unless you are specifically planning a war…. So let’s say your rational and not planning to invade an island or country and start world war 3, if your market is 500 aircraft over 20 years ( about the demand for typhoons) you could make a massive investment train many 10,000 of people build a mega factory and churn out the lot in 5 years with a product rate of 100 a year.. but then you close the factory sack all the staff and don’t have an aircraft industry to build its replacement in 20 years… so instead you train your staff and build your infrastructure to sustain a rate of 25 a year so you have the infrastructure and staff still in place to build it’s replacement in 20 years..that is a sustainable model that is used by nations that are not planning to kick of WW3.. now if you had definitely planned to start a war in 5 years you would build your unsustainable mega factory churn out the 500 in five years, start your war, because you don’t care about sustainability.
You can see this in action now with China as it’s still building an SSN mega factory that has 24 final assembly bays for nuclear submarines operating now and will within a couple of years probably have 36 final assembly bays.. throwning out around 8 nuclear submarines a year… as a nuclear submarine lasts 20-25 years unless china wants a fleet of 200 nuclear submarine’s in 25 years time that’s an unsustainable factory complex ( it spend 30+ years with just 4 bays).
Sort of.
However, even the sustainment model needs continuous orders.
Navy have got that message over.
Indeed it’s about the correct level, the issue with shipbuild was more about complete starvation not an issue with a sustainable model. If HMG had simply keep up a steady drumbeat of a complex warship a year shipbuilding would have been in a better place and the RN would not face the possibility of dropping to 10 escorts.
Hello Jonathan. I understand what you say so, as HMG should also be on the same page not to mention the top Services Brass, in understanding that we have moved on from Spitfires to Typhoons, that we now need to a. Plan properly in advance and b. start manufacturing much earlier and c. rather refurb where possible instead of scrapping hardware that retains some life. If this were the case (and we all know this) then we would not have sunk to the bizarre situation wherein the Royal Navy can barely muster 14 escorts in an absolutely best-case scenario!
Cheers from Durban
If we did a and b properly, we wouldn’t even need c.
The RN being able to muster 14 escorts in a best case scenario is way beyond the wildest dreams now. I suspect best case maximum effort of the RN would be 2 type 45s and 2 type 23s and that would be 4 weeks notice.. immediate best effort is probably a T45 and T23.
By the end of the year there will only be 5 type 23s active.
Lancaster is being decommissioned this year.
Kent is still in its 6 year post lifex refit and will be for another year.. let’s see if she is the first T23 to actually survive the experience.
Richmond will be going in for its six year post lifex refit as soon as it’s back from the CBG..
To be fair, Germany is coming from a MUCH worse position so has a huge amount of catching up to do just to become credible again.
Here in the UK we do things our way, we got rid of 20 Typhons. How ever we have bought a lot of service contracts and set up many projects. Not bought any new kit for over a year, but all will be ok by 2030 because the CDS says it will.
The far-left government hasn’t ordered a single additional ship, plane, or tank since it took office. It’s incredible.
It’s not incredible really, as it’s exactly what some, including me, expected.
The Tories were just as bad, they all are.
Aren’t we due the equipment/spending plan for defence soon?
That will be cuts with a big catering size tin of jam promised for tomorrow or that day after…actually all jam deliveries are delayed until after the next election.
Far left 🤣 seriously you need to educate yourself. Most of the old Labour supporters are fuming calling this government Tory Lites. Everyone is brain washed by the right wing media which dominates the country. There is nothing remotely far left about them, they are barely left of centre.
If it’s not being a far-left government to imprison people for being against the illegal immigration invasion then I don’t know what it is.
It also imprisons people for being pro-Palestine, far more than for the racist hate speech about letting people drown in the channel…
Far left or far right has got sod all to do with imprisoning people.. it’s about ideology and this present government has a neoliberal ideology as all British governments have had since 1980.. a far left government would be communist.. essentially societal ownership of everything.. complete central control of the economy.
funny looks like far left when prosecuting or arresting 12000 to 14000 people for online comments you dont like.
No liberty or freedom loving nation I know does that. No wonder the americans think we have lost the plot
No planes except for the order of 12 F35As
That’s not additional, they’ve simply replaced 12 f35 B with 12 f35A, so the same ridiculous numbers remain.
It’s part of an additional 27 F35s on top of the initial buy of 48. The final of the 48 is expected to be completed by next year. Germany currently has zero F35s because they took a decade deliberating on what their next aircraft purchase should be and then it’ll probably be the best part of a decade before their full compliment of 35 F35s are in operation. At that point in time, for us, we can only pray that Tempest is coming online.
Order? I thought it was an announcement about the intent to order. Have the orders been placed?
Lol calling Labour “far left.”
There is no way yhis govt can be described as far left. It is a barely left of centre social democratic govt. It’s policies are characterised by a philosophy of inclusion, pragmatism, the common good and prudent supply side economics. It is essentially Methodism without the hymns. The far left is now occupied by the Greens and the far right by Reform; neither of which are competent to govern the country.
We need more Typhoons. Simple as that. Looking at the above comments the UK makes a good profit in this area – 15% of F35s, 37% of Typhoons, 37% of all Gripon parts/25-33% by value… so the industry is doing well. As to the effectiveness, people say that the Typhoon is outdated, but you only need to look at the opposition. How stealthy is the Typhhon? It doesn’t exactly shine brightly in the sky saying ‘shoot me down’.
https://defencesecurityasia.com/en/four-british-eurofighter-typhoons-ambush-two-russian-fighter-jets-over-black-sea/
That article suggests that Russia isn’t really able to detect Typhoon easily in actual combat situations. So Typhoon has a lot of life left.
Mass. Germany is starting to grow its number of airframes – something our leaders haven’t yet grasped. Another month another month with a lack of new incremental orders.
Jam does take a while to set !