Italy has placed an order for up to 24 Eurofighter Typhoon jets, a contract signed on 23 December 2024 in Rome.
This order will replace the older Tranche 1 Eurofighter jets currently in service, significantly enhancing Italy’s air defence capabilities.
As Giancarlo Mezzanatto, Chief Executive of Eurofighter, stated: “Italy’s decision to purchase an additional 24 jets is, of course, fantastic news for our programme, further demonstrating the strength and importance that Eurofighter Typhoon brings to Europe.”
Stefano Pontecorvo, Chairman of Leonardo, also commented: “The level of technology delivered by the Eurofighter programme over years is unquestionable. Its success provides evidence of the outstanding synergies between industry and institutions.”
Lorenzo Mariani, Co-General Manager of Leonardo, remarked: “This contract is a major milestone for the Eurofighter programme in Italy. Since its inception, it has played a crucial role for national defence and security as well as in the development of advanced technologies and employment of thousands of skilled professionals.”
AVM Simon Ellard (ret.), General Manager of NETMA, added: “The additional 24 aircraft for Italy is yet another proud moment for the Eurofighter Programme. The order will enhance the Italian Air Force’s combat air capabilities and provide security for Italy, Europe and the NATO Alliance.”
The new Eurofighters will feature advanced avionics and enhanced weapon systems, including the Brimstone III and Meteor missiles, along with new sensors and improved connectivity. These upgrades will ensure the jets’ capabilities well into the future, with a service life extending beyond 2060. As Mezzanatto pointed out: “The Eurofighter continues to be the backbone of European air defence.”
I appreciate that uk defence spending has to cover the expensive nuclear deterrent, but when we see other western nations getting new kit, you wonder where uk money is spent?
UK, is rightly, regarded as a laggard in terms of real defence spending.
Because of the way that capital costs are dumped into the core budget particularly for SSN and SSBN that ears a lot of RN CAPEX.
We also tend to love really big ambitious bespoke Gucci projects that eat large blocks of cash over a decade and then we cancel them.
So Italy gets a lot more bang for bucks….
Does any nation not include capital expenditure in their defence budget? After all nato gdp% rules are a standard that nations are benchmarked against and you can guarantee every nation tries to artificially inflate their % by throwing in everything that is allowed.
Yes every nation does this.
Its worth noting that Italy’s armed forces haven’t really been used in anger but uk ones have been in constant use for decades. That brings additional wear and tear that comes at a cost to deal with.
If you look at reports from RUSI on readiness you can see why some European countries appear to have large airforces on smaller budgets than ours. Readiness and training cost vast amounts of money. That’s why the USA spends so much but appears to get so little.
The UK benchmarks it forces on the US and trying to maintain that level is expensive.
That being said I am all for us keeping items like the Tranche 1 and buying more C2 even if we can’t use them as we need an attritional reserve of equipment.
“That’s why the USA spends so much but appears to get so little.”
Uh, not sure that’s true? Wouldn’t say they get little when looking at the size of their armed forces and the capability is has.
What a stupid statement, every country that operates nuclear weapons and SSN pays for it from the defence budget.
Do you really need to be obnoxious!
The guy asked an innocent question. There is no need for you to be so odious.
Nuclear weapons are cheap. Very cheap.
Yes.
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When you look the full spectrum of capabilities we have.Its easy to see were the money goes. We also pay much better then countries like Italy/Spain.
I remember speaking to a serving RN admiral about seven years ago. He was employed in staff position looking at medium to long term requirements in assets and Funding. I specifically asked him about assets, funding and the RM in the future. His answer was chilling. These are his thoughts at the time. By the time the RN pay for two carriers and the aircraft we are buying for them, coupled with two separate class SSBN there is very little in the budget for anything else. The Soviet threat in the Atlantic has not reduced particularly sub surface. The Astutes… Read more »
Why not give them the 20 we are throwing away? as always we will get by with the least amount possible. Great if we do not loose any. The UK Armed Force just enough to get by nothing more.
Italy doesn’t want second hand tranche 1s. They are placing their own with these.
They arw replacing T1 airframes. Just like Spain and Germany. We are upgrading our T2/3s instead and purchasing F35B.
Are they getting the airframe mods as well?
UK needs more too (along with everything else) but ofc there is no money available.
But where is the money going?
Uk is not a poor country, so how are we having so little coming in compared to going out?
Payments to life long panhandlers on the social.
This is becoming embarrassing. Italy spends not much more than half the UK and will have more combat aircraft. Being a partner in GCAP isn’t stopping them buying more Typhoons. Rebuilding UK AirPower should be a priority.
It’s not just about airframe numbers. But what you do with them. We deploy far more, and are much better supported. We conduct genuine global Operations with our Typhoons. Italy doesn’t. Some of you guys cannot look past the simple numbers game, and forget the operational reality. We actually use ours in real combat Operations. We can sustain ours very far from home. Other nations don’t/can’t. Ours are the most capable in service. That is were the money goes.
We get what you’re saying and the UK does need to concentrate on upgrading what Typhoons it has but can it at least go beyond the 40 allocated for the radarupgrades? An extra 20+ newbies would surely help further with ops wouldn’t it?
All T2/3 jets are being upgraded. But so far only 40 will get the new radar. They are all receiving many more upgrades. It’s not just about the new radar.
Are they really though? I have both seen and read on multiple occasions since Typhoon has been in service that on both NATO deployments and in defense of the relm (mainland UK) there haven’t been enough operational aircraft to scramble more than a single to response to threats. That is beyond insane and should never be allowed. (ie you should always have minimum four operational aircraft for alert like the US do, not 2 plus 2 on maintenance, but 4 ready to go jets. ie that means an entire squadron (rule of 3) task for QRF, which would mean 2… Read more »
France didn’t even have heavy lift helicopters needing us to provide them in North Africa. They have no fifth generation aircraft which means they cannot participate in a modern air campaign in anyway and they lack an effective SEAD capability meaning they can’t conduct sovereign operations against a peer threat.
Just counting planes ship and soldiers is not an apple for apples comparison. Look at Astute and compare its capabilities to a French SSN which is significantly smaller and a generation behind.
It’s not though… there hasn’t been a UK ship that wasn’t plagued with malfunctions and incidents..
No they do not have heavy lift helicopters, there are gaps in their defense force just like there are gaps in every defense force in the world with the exception of the United States. There are currently many many gaps in the British Armed forces as well, but I would argue that the French forces are more balanced and coherent for their defense posture. In terms of helo lift the French have recapitalised their lift around the NH-90 and EC225 medium to medium-heavy helicopters on the last decade. They prefer to purchase European/French equipment where possible. They haven’t purchased a… Read more »
We do have 4 jets on alert. 2 are the primary QRA jets. And another 2 are held at a slightly lower readiness. Same at Coningsby. 1 sqn is also on standby to surge the QRA role if needed. The RAF does know what it’s doing. Who would have thought that eh.
Then why for the past almost 15 years both at home and on NATO deployments have the RAF have been only sending up singles for QRA flights to meet intruders on multiple occasions. Because they don’t have the planes and the personal to do the job properly. Because only having 2 planes ready to launch, when one of the 2 have a problem then only one ends up going into the air. Having 2 at lower readiness is pointless if they can’t be launch straight away does nothing to help, only ensures help is available hours later when it’s too… Read more »
It’s precisely because we work our Typhoons harder than Italy or Germany that we need to order more. Germany’s Tornados were retained longer than UKs for the same reason. ,
Typhoon is designed to work hard. It does not have airframe fatigue issues like Tornado does/did. And the support contract is very effective at providing a very high availability rate with surge capacity.
Italy is not burdened with a nuclear detterent. It is a UK legacy from the time when we were still, due to Empire and Commonwealth, a global player. The downside is that having 4 SSBNs and 7 SSNs costs us, according to the FT this week, £12bn a year. That is more than the entire army, navy, air force and strategic command’s entire equipment budget for the year. Take nuclear out of the defence budget, fund it centrally from the Treasury – as used to be the case – and we could more than match Italy’s impressive list of acquisitions.… Read more »
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If you are suggesting we get rid of our nuclear deterrant, I appreciate your boldness but frankly that is stupid. There is a reason we, at great cost, developed a soverign nuclear deterrent rather than blindly trust the American’s would trade Washington to avenge London.
Sure, you can’t hide behind the Nuclear shield forever, you do need conventional capability. However, nuclear weapons aren’t some archiac ceremonial piece, they actively shape the decision making off our enemies. Just the same of theirs shape ours.
The deterrence has always been part of the defence budget. It might have been seperately accounted for by the treasury but when the uk calculated it’s overall defence budget it was always included in the numbers.
Yeah, but what about the French, they have a nuclear deterrent and have the higher cost of developing everything in house, not sharing it with the US. France spends: 59.4 billion USD Britain spends: 76.9 billion USD (30% more) France: 205,300 personal Britain: 138,100 personal (just under 50% less) (NATO figures above from 2023) France: 226 fighter aircraft UK: 144 fighter aircraft (57% less) (flight international figures) French Navy is now same strength as Royal Navy, has more surface combatants currently. French Logistics has been massively improved in recent years, yes they don’t have C-17 or Chinook, but they make… Read more »
Can you share where you got the £12 billion figure from. I have searched the FT and can’t find it. It’s not an accurate figure. There has been significant spending in the past year but its primarily infrastructure investment and much is paid for by Australia.
The sdsr will be interesting, as the air force really does need boosting, either through speeding up the f35 purchases or additional typhoon ones. The uk isn’t under direct threat and isn’t likely to be so, but I can see on the horizon many scenarios where the raf will be called on to do bombing missions on failed states.
The only reason in my mind to buy more typhoons it to keep Wharton working but if there are other orders we should either retain and upgrade our T1 like the Spanish have done for a cheaper option or buy more F35 for a better long term more capable platform.
Aren’t there potential orders from Saudi Arabia and Turkey and even Poland just to add to the queue. There must be cost savings to be had here for the UK while waiting for the ever coming Block 4 upgrades be the F35Bs. A new batch of Typhoons might arrive sooner and be ready to use!
Aren’t there potential orders from Saudi Arabia and Turkey and even Poland just to add to the queue. There must be cost savings to be had here for the UK while waiting for the ever coming Block 4 upgrades be the F35Bs. A new batch of Typhoons might arrive sooner and be ready to use!
The article presents various arguments and data points regarding numbers, but it falls short in detailing the specific locations where these jets are being manufactured. Additionally, it remains unclear whether any of this production will have a positive impact on UK manufacturing capabilities. Notably, the BAe production line having recently ceased operations, raising questions whether the Italian order and the 25 units that Spain announced the other day will touch the UK’s production pipeline. I know that Turkey had a two plane demonstration last week and is contemplating an order of 40 Typhoons through collaboration between the UK and Germany.… Read more »
Turkey is playing its political card. For its fighter force it is overly reliant on the US. As has been demonstrated recently, the US can turn the taps off in regards to spares and support for their huge F16 fleet. Turkey, is shopping around for an alternative, much like the Arab states and Egypt. Where they have a mix of US and European jets to mitigate political issue with spares supply and support. Typhoon will be an interim jet until their domestically designed and produced Kaan comes into service in 2030ish. The “5th gen” Kaan is designed to replace both… Read more »