Deliveries to Eurofighter partner nations near conclusion

The programme-of-record (PoR) for the four Eurofighter partner nations will shortly be concluded, with the final two air forces set to receive their last aircraft imminently, a company spokesperson told Jane’s on 17 January.

With the United Kingdom and Germany having received their final Tranche 3 Eurofighters in September and December 2019 respectively, handover of Spain’s last aircraft “is now in process”, while Italy’s “is having its final screws tightened”, the representative said.

Excluding the Tranche 3B lot, which was not taken up by the nations, the PoR stands at 160 aircraft for the UK, 143 for Germany, 96 for Italy, and 73 for Spain. Added to these are export orders amounting to 15 aircraft for Austria, 28 for Kuwait, 12 for Oman, 72 for Saudi Arabia, and 24 for Qatar. In total, 623 have been ordered.

While the partner PoR is concluding, deliveries to Kuwait and Qatar have yet to commence. As such, the national production lines at Warton in the UK, Manching in Germany, Italy in Caselle, and Spain in Getafe will continue to manufacture parts for these customers, with final assembly taking place at Warton for Qatar and at Caselle for Kuwait.

Further to these final current orders, Germany is expected to sign for 38 new-build Tranche 3 Eurofighters to replace its 32 early Tranche 1 aircraft. Project Quadriga will see the Luftwaffe receive active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar-equipped Eurofighters (while Airbus previously referred to these as Tranche 3 jets, lately officials have termed them Tranche 4).