Unite, the UK’s largest defence and manufacturing union, has welcomed Türkiye’s agreement to purchase 20 Typhoon fighter jets but warned that the Royal Air Force must place its own new orders to sustain British jobs and engineering capability.
The £8 billion deal, announced during Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to Ankara, was described by the union as “very welcome news” for thousands of members employed by BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Leonardo and other companies in the Typhoon supply chain. Unite said the contract will help maintain production lines and preserve critical fast jet assembly expertise in the UK.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said, “This new Typhoon order is very welcome news for our members. Unite has been extremely clear about the need for having more British-built Typhoons in order to sustain jobs and vital engineering skills in the UK, especially in final assembly capability.”
However, Graham added that the UK government must now match its export success with domestic investment. “Now our own government needs to follow suit and buy new state-of-the-art British Typhoons to replace the RAF’s ageing fast-jets. The prime minister promised to use the defence budget to get workers in Britain building, so what are we waiting for?”
The RAF currently operates around 137 Typhoon aircraft, with the oldest airframes entering service two decades ago.
Defence analysts have previously suggested that a new batch of upgraded Typhoons could help bridge the gap before the introduction of the UK’s next-generation combat aircraft, the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), expected in the late 2030s.
Is that 137 including Trenche 1? If so, it’s going to be 107 and less.
Indeed.
Problem is RAF has lost interest in Typhoon and F35B and is now going all in on manoeuvres for F35A.
Which F35 flavour is irrelevant as the weapons fit us so poor with UK sovereign weapons.
However, Typhoon is mature in this respect and BAE can control integration.
Says the same woman who has called BAe workers out on strike!
Same old really, the Unions trying to protect jobs..
No chance, the RAF want to move on from Gen 4.5, they have no intention of buying more.
As undoubtedly capable as Thypoon is, particularly with all the latest magic source, it will be at a disadvantage against advanced Chinese supplied aircraft in the 2030’s.
If money wasn’t an issue, I would be all for additional tranche 4 Thypoon, plus the comprehensive upgrade of tranche 2 and 3 to the same standard.
But, sadly money is a problem, so reluctantly I agree with the RAF and purchase more F35A while we wait fir Tempest to come down the line.
Lack of Typhoon demand threatens the baseline skills required for GCAP Tempest so these preferences are ignorant of their consequences. Specifically increasing cost and risk for Tempest, while reducing UK defence credibility. Not a problem if scrapping GCAP to buy F-47 is your plan, but otherwise a mistake..
The RAF now operates 111 Typhoons (4 tranche 1’s in The Falkland’s until 2027).
It’s not just an industrial and skills argument, it’s needed for the RAF to retain mass and not stretch the existing Typhoon fleet too much.
France is warning something like 280 Rafale’s! We need 200 fast-jets at the very least (70 F35’s and 130 Typhoon’s).
How many of those 280 jets are deployable is a valid question!
We need the 72 F35B to get that program to critical mass.
The argument that I can see is that by the time Typhoon is upgraded F35 will be on Blk4 and also all singing and dancing – problem is that LM aren’t hitting timelines.
With LM already years late, and reliability of the administration very much in doubt, European independent capability is even more valuable than before. More Typhoons are not only necessary but also sends the right message to those assuming that UK taxpayers will cover the slow delivery for all of the JSF Programme, and accept poor integration work.