British Procurement Minister Philip Dunne announced on Saturday at the International Defence Exhibition that he was “looking forward to announcing further air-to-ground strike capability” for the Typhoon.
MBDA’s Brimstone air-to-ground missile is one of the few weapons not yet integrated with Typhoon.
The missile recieved praise during operations in Afghanistan, Libya and more recently in striking Islamic State targets in Iraq.
Fitting the new Brimstone 2 version of the missile now in series production at MBDA’s UK facilities will give the Typhoon a significant capability to defeat small high speed and maneuvering targets on land or at sea.
Brimstone 2 will reportedly have an improved seeker and improvements to airframe and software for “an overall increase in performance with improvements in range and engagement footprint”, including a “more than 200% increase” in maximum range. Tornado is due to recieve this variant this year.
The integration deal is seen as part of the effort to upgrade Typhoon capabilities vital to keeping the combat jet in the race for exports.
Representatives from the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain signed the $228 million contract to upgrade the jet, said the Eurofighter consortium, which includes BAE Systems PLC, Airbus Group NV and Finmeccanica SpA. The new capabilities will likely be available within two years.
About time
Be nice if they announced that they were going to procure enough Figters to defend our airspace effectively!
One day, maybe, it could do as much as a Tornado.
Apart from Stormshadow it can do more than Tornado. Don’t forget its cockpit is now fully integrated with live link 16 feeds. Swing role and as proven over Libya able to operate with a formidable weapon payload.