Germany signs off on $4.4 billion Eurofighter Typhoon deal
The latest Typhoon order is the most lucrative of seven weapon system acquisitions rubber stamped by the budget committee.
BELFAST — The German budget committee approved a long-planned order of advanced Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets today, greenlighting the €3.75 billion ($4.36 billion) procurement of 20 additional aircraft, designed to the Tranche 5 standard.
In a translated statement, the German Ministry of Defense (MoD) said that the combat jets will be equipped with E-scan radars with deliveries set to run from 2031 to 2034.
“The Eurofighter is the mainstay of the German combat aircraft fleet,” the statement added. “The procurement of Tranche 5 [aircraft] serves to gradually transfer the capabilities of the aging Tornado fighter jet in the area of Electronic Combat and Reconnaissance (ECR) into a future-proof platform with which Germany will continue to” honour its NATO objectives.
As previously reported, Berlin first announced a plan to place the newly approved Eurofighter Tranche 5 order in June, as a complement to a separate purchase of 38 units already on contract with Airbus, under the Project Quadriga acquisition program.
The Eurofighter consortium is made up of four home nations: Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.
The latest Typhoon order is the most lucrative of seven weapon system acquisitions rubber stamped by the budget committee, which also includes estimated funding of €412 for Eurofighter simulators to support pilot training. A project to upgrade the electronic warfare capabilities of Germany’s Typhoon fleet, at a cost of roughly €1.13 billion and dedicated specifically to “suppression of ground-based air defense” capabilities, has also been signed off.
“The Eurofighter is to be optimized with the [Saab produced] AREXIS self-protection system and corresponding air-to-ground guided missiles and further enabled for electronic warfare,” added the German MoD statement.
Arexis was originally selected by Berlin for an electronic attack requirement in 2023, and it is the “default configuration” for Swedish Air Force Gripen E/F jets, Mikael Corp, sales director of fighter electronic warfare at Saab, told Breaking Defense in May. He also noted at the time that deliveries of the EW sensor to Airbus, ahead of the planned integration of the equipment on German Typhoons, had already taken place.
Elsewhere, the budget committee decided to approve contracts for armor-piercing ammunition, medium range boats for naval special forces and minehunting sonar systems for Class 332 vessels.
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