The Ministry of Defence has outlined its approach to fulfilling Qatar’s request for additional Typhoon jets while balancing production commitments for other customers.
Mark Francois MP, representing Rayleigh and Wickford, queried the Secretary of State for Defence about the timeline for delivering 12 additional Typhoon aircraft to Qatar. He also asked whether an assessment had been made of how this delivery schedule might impact production commitments for other customers.
Maria Eagle, Minister of State for the Ministry of Defence, provided a response on 12 December 2024. She stated:
“Following the Amir of Qatar’s State Visit to the UK, we have agreed to deepen cooperation in support of regional security while supporting growth and prosperity in both nations. This includes undertaking opportunities to strengthen our respective defence capabilities through broadening our cooperation on the Typhoon and Hawk partnerships. We will continue to hold discussions with Qatar on these issues as required.”
While no specific timeline or details on potential production impacts were provided, the response highlights the UK’s commitment to enhancing its defence relationship with Qatar and supporting regional security.
The UK has previously supplied Typhoon and Hawk aircraft to Qatar as part of an agreement that underpins regional security while supporting jobs and technological innovation in the UK.
Discussions appear to be ongoing to finalise details of the new delivery schedule and its implications for other customers.
What other customers do they have to manage, The unions told us the production line was shutting down in 2025 and we needed to buy 24. Could be they know more about Saudi and Turkey orders than is official.
Is that why Mr Wet Weekend was kneeling to MBS recently to close the deal.
The ridiculous thing is that we will have exported more Typhoon than we have in service.
Our gulf allies will have a larger Typhoon force than we do!
Germany Italy and Spain have to supply major components to the final assembly line in the UK, and they also have their own orders to fulfill for their own final assembly lines.
Notice the usual pattern? Ask a question and get a gobbledegook reply.
Wish we could have some new Typhoons 🎅 🌲
It would be nice!
I would settle for keeping the 30 old ones. The Spanish are upgrading their T1 air frames to incorporate meteor and even Captor E AESA radar, no reason we could not do the same. Even just to keep them in an attrition reserve.
I would agree Jim, I would settle for an austere update to keep them in the front line as pure air defence assets for another 10 years.
Bea Systems would manage to turn it into a delayed muti billion pound hole in the ground though…
It might simply be more expedient to order another 40 F35B (delivered at a decent annual rate) to create four front line squadrons and keep the tranche 1Typoons ‘as is’ for a few more years…
They would step into the breech for a few years, before Tempest comes on line and allows F35B to concentrate on Carrier operations.
It depends if BAE would do it as a fixed price contract.
I honestly think some of early Typhoons have been totally stripped and are used for things like rescue training.
Certainly all the two seaters are long gone.
Any country serious about its defences would be keeping as many of its fly able older aircraft in reserve rather than scrapping them.
It is curious timing.
The problem is the accounting hangover from the sandy wars. Where the MoD was running on fumes. Munitions expended were replaced but capital expenditure was as low as possible and force sizes were retained for too long.
This may sound strange but if the service chiefs had wielded the axe earlier there would have been less hollowing out. Trying to keep large fleets of old stuff running starts to eat serious cash as more and more parts become ‘specials’.
That said TreasuryMan(TM) [or Gordon Brown] might have spotted investment and cut the MoD budgets….
Well, that’s a good step towards keeping lines hot and skills live prior to Tempest.
Like other comments, I do wonder who these other commitments are that may slow us down providing these to Qatar…
I am torn about F-35 / Typhoon balance for the UK. We need ~75 F-35B to make the CSG meaningful, but the delays to Block IV delivery are outrageous and crippling/hobbling the aircraft in many ways. Which makes me think that we need to give all F-35 over to carrier ops, and thus give more Typhoon to land based ops. But that needs more money and still probably wouldn’t fix the problem of the F-35…
Sadly ( and typically) the Typhoon still has much potential to unleash, but alas it will never be realised.
I doubt the slow as molasses Captor E will even be deployed on Tranche 2 jets.
The money simply isn’t there, so it will be upgraded trache 3 Typoons, additional F35’s ( hopefully 24) and large sums of money pumped
into the Tempest programme.
‘……timelines not addressed’ would be better headline. Meanwhile….Germany have now ordered @58 new tranche 4/5 Eurofighters. UK looking to upgrade existing airframes while F35 still lacks mass and its critical weaponry.
To be fair Pete, Germany don’t have SSBN’s /SSN or Carriers to pay for, run and upgrade.
They have their Army and Airforce to concentrate on and a small navy.
They can afford to push the boat out a bit on air power.
The UK is trying to do a lot on a relatively small budget and the government refuse to increase spending substantially.
It obvious to us, that spending should be 3%, right now and ringfenced for decades to come.
God that is one of the most ridiculous answers I’ve seen.
How about the ex defence minister press HMG on our own force levels?