The UK Government has released over £200 million to support the initial production of a new cutting-edge radar for the Royal Air Force’s Typhoon fighter jets, a system that promises to significantly boost the aircraft’s combat capabilities.
The funding was confirmed during a visit to Leonardo’s radar facility in Edinburgh by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones MP. The £204.6 million package will secure long-lead components for the ECRS Mk2 radar ahead of full-scale production, expected to begin later in 2025.
Described by officials as a “world-leading electronic warfare capability,” the ECRS Mk2 will enable Typhoon jets to detect, identify, and track multiple targets in the air and on the ground simultaneously. The radar will also include advanced suppression of enemy air defences (SEAD) via an embedded wideband electronic attack function.
The radar is being developed by Leonardo in Edinburgh and Luton, with integration work led by BAE Systems in Lancashire. The announcement comes after a successful campaign of flight trials, completed in February 2025, and is part of a wider capability upgrade under the Eurofighter consortium’s Phase 4 Enhancement programme.
According to Leonardo, the project is sustaining 600 jobs across UK industry, including more than 400 at Leonardo and 120 at BAE Systems, mostly in Scotland and the North West of England. In total, the broader upgrade effort is expected to support around 1,300 skilled jobs over the next decade.
“With modern conflict demonstrating the importance of electronic warfare to combat operations, we are proud that the UK’s onshore combat air industry is the first in Europe to offer a radar with embedded wideband SEAD capabilities,” said Mark Hamilton, Managing Director Electronics UK at Leonardo. “Development is running several years ahead of other international efforts.”
“This commitment to the continued evolution of Typhoon’s capability ensures the RAF maintains its operational advantage,” added Richard Hamilton, Managing Director Europe and International at BAE Systems Air. “It also sustains the UK’s sovereign combat air skills enabling Typhoon to secure our skies into the future.”
Initial production radars are expected to be available from 2028, with the RAF aiming to bring the ECRS Mk2 into service before the end of the decade.
Lyndon Hoyle, Head of the Typhoon Delivery Team at Defence Equipment & Support, said the investment reflects growing confidence in the design’s maturity. “With initial production radars due to become available from 2028, the race is now on to get them integrated as soon as possible,” he said.
The radar forms a key part of the Typhoon upgrade roadmap outlined in the Strategic Defence Review, which emphasises the role of technology and innovation in securing UK operational advantage. The review also highlights the importance of sustaining defence manufacturing jobs and nurturing technical skills across the country.
Good, we’ve long needed some sort of sead capability
We do have similar already in the F35B radar and ECM systems
Wasn’t aware of that, thanks
Slightly frustrating that we could have had versions of this radar years ago from what I read a decade back, but it was held back through cost (in a time of the ‘peace dividend’) of development and the argument at the time the present mechanical scanned radar was good enough. Indeed early versions of it were running nearly 20 years back but when finally given the go ahead much of the electronics some of nineties vintage in some cases, no longer even existed to use so a complete redesign was required using modern alternatives. In the meantime the Chinese have really progressed and this radar is now no luxury, it’s vital to keep Typhoon competitive let alone feed into Tempest. One presumes that it is much enhanced from that period however.
The ECRS development path has been extraordinarily slow. It was announced 3 or 4 years ago but is going to take another 3 or 4 years to ISD.
The cost of development, manufacture and installation is likely to be rather vast: IIRC, it was working out at over £40m per aircraft. Note that no cost figures have been made public since then, which is rarely a good sign.
The plan, limited by cost, was to upgrade just the 40 tranche 3 Typhoons, not the 67 tranche 2 ones. Ideally, we would upgrade all of them, we are weak enough in the air as things stand.
I think the MOD motif should read: Half a loaf and ideally less is better than none’.
The fact that the F35B has SEAD capabilities has to be qualified by (a) they are rather short-legged for the strike mission and (b) they will likely be off
on the deck of a carrier having out-of-area adventures. No matter what the RN pretends, they cannot be in two places at once.
Let’s be clear, this is a capability Typhoon has been lacking for some time now, unlike the majority of its competitors.
“With initial production radars due to become available from 2028, the race is now on to get them integrated as soon as possible,”
This project has crawled along at an absolutely glacial pace and will only be integrated into 40 odd tranche 3 Typhoons.
By the time it eventually sees service in 2030 plus, it will already be facing component obsolescence.
It’s pathetic quite frankly, a potentially excellent radar being starved of funding and losing its advantage to ‘rapidly’ gaining Chinese technology..
I agree but typical of our technology development. It’s already been through component obsolescence once and I was feeling positive when I read early productions would start production later this year only to read first operational use (if we are lucky) in 3 years. Geez we went from Home Chain 1st Gen crude radars to microwave generating magnetron based airborne Air to Air and ground illuminating Bomber based radar in that sort of period. And this is at a time of urgency we are told, and development that, unlike so many projects, have gone reasonably smoothly. Our pilots deserve better.
You, and everyone else has no idea about Chinese technology. The APG-77 Radar in the F22 dates back to the early 90s. Its still an awsome Radar. So using obsolescence as an excuse to bash this project is a none starter. It will provide an outstanding capability for Typhoon. They are designed to be in service for 30+ years. Future proofing is built into the design.
Morning Robert, the APG 77 has had a tech refresh and in reality it’s going to be lagging behind the latest Chinese radar systems now, with their missiles apparently on par with the latest western systems too.
Quite Frankly, I wouldn’t doubt our Radar 2 is an exceptional piece of kit, but it’s cost billions, it’s taken years and only a handful of aircraft will get it.
That’s pathetic quite frankly…
All Tranche 2 and 3 airframes should be upgraded to an advanced block 4 standard, as a single fleet.
Sadly, the RAF will end up with old Tranche 2 machines, being outmatched and not upgraded, while countries like Iran, end up flying highly capable J-10C’s!
Probably an excuse to cull them and replace ‘obsolete’ ‘T2’s, with a buy of F35A. Certainly T2 will be operationally obsolete by the 2030’s, as advanced Chinese aircraft proliferate across our potential adversaries.
Unless the whole fleet is given this radar it’s just another sad example of why we can’t get value. Another ” world beating” system at a snails pace. The US is fitting SABR into it’s older aircraft. We might see 40 if lucky by the early 30s.
If you want SEAD just integrate AARGM -ER OTS ( as Spear 3 is also painfully slow)
Perhaps an OTS anti ship missile for Typhoon and the wing pylons on F35b.
We have one of the smallest fighter fleets Vs our peer NATO nations, glaring capability gaps yet the MOD will promise this world class bit of kit in small numbers.
We don’t do off the shelf. It’s a tradition that we piss around and finally get something a decade after everyone else at 3 times the cost. They never learn.
Remember. Pork to the MIC is their main aim.
Good, so this is for the 40 odd Tranche 3s, right? I’d like to see this on the Tranche 2s also, standardise and remove the constraint of only certain aircraft having this functionality but acknowledge budgets remain tight. The consolation I suppose is, Typhoons probably fly in flights of 2, 3 or 4 jets per sortie, so, so long as you have 1 or two that offer SEAD functionality then that’s the capability covered.
Possibility of Tranche 2 mod, once more funds are flowing into MoD coffers from 2027?
Nonetheless, this remains valuable programme, especially if a derivative of this radar will be utilized in GCAP/Tempest. Always useful to keep the design engineers and technicians gainfully employed. Dividends reaped into foreseeable future.
This has been on the go forever and if it’s operational this side of 2035 I’ll eat my shoes.
Quality bit of kit.
Piss take how it’s taking so long.
Integration trial was successful, throw everything at it to get in front line jets now!!!
I’m presuming we have to ask the Chinese to supply the damn rare earth materials that we need. Thanks to Trump it has been incredibly difficult for other nations to get them because the Chinese needed convincing they weren’t being diverted to the US. Yes you can imagine how easy that is for a UK business let alone one involved in defence.
(Started this comment off as mere sarcasm, but as I wrote it was not so sure, on thinking about it)
Rare earth situation is all the West’s own making including the UK…like alot of things involving China…and Russia for that matter.
Well our presence in Africa is one Ranger Battalion and one SFAB battalion which might go away now, so… yeah. At least the French engage with their former colonies in Africa.
Teams of, yes?
Rather than Company plus dets.
If its going to take that long might as well order some new typhoons and chuck these new radars in while we’re at it.
not RAF Luton …
This should have / could have been done 5 years ago. For crying out loud.
It is comforting ( sort of) to see that other share my extreme frustration at the rate of development, airframe integration and the Farscal number of jets it will be fitted too.
Number 1 problem with UK defence. Too little, too late and at a ridiculous price.
From Typhoon aesa radar to army fighting vehicles.
We demand the best, have chronic scope creep, iwhat should have been cutting edge, is finally delivered too little too late and already overtaken by our competitors.
And we wonder why other countries get much more bang for the buck,
And even more frustrating, there is little sign anything will improve any time soon.
Labour pretending already committed money is an increase.