A History of the Programme

Eurofighter Typhoon: designed today for future needs

The Eurofighter Typhoon was designed to be the world's most advanced swing-role combat aircraft. The Eurofighter concept has been conceived since the beginning as a multi-role/swing-role platform that would meet the exacting operational demands of the air forces of Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. The degree of the air-to-surface component varies in content and priority between the nations however, the four nation requirement stated that in any design conflict, the priority should be given to the air-to-air role. For this reason, the air superiority performance requirements drove the aerodynamic design of the airframe.

The agreement, the basis for the project's development programme, defined the requirement for an extremely agile fighter that will dominate the skies to the mid-21st Century - a single seat, twin-engine fighter with optimal performance in Beyond Visual Range (BVR) and close combat, with significant ground attack capabilities.
The inherent flexibility of Typhoon means that an extended role to encompass air-to-surface capability can also be achieved without affecting Typhoon's air superiority capability.

The design concept evolved after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the requirement, role and capabilities have been re-oriented to take in to account the changing requirements of the post cold war defence environment. Thanks to this design approach today the Typhoon is the most advanced multirole aircraft available on the market and the only one capable to respond to any air forces, requirements today and in the future.

The aircraft has been designed with substantial growth capability and an established technology insertion programme to progressively enhance performance and reduce technology risk. By offering maximum operational effectiveness and flexibility; high survivability; extensive technological growth potential, as well as high reliability and maintainability with low operating costs, The Typhoon continues to be the most cost-effective solution to meet the evolution of today’s requirements.

With the abandonment of France and its industry from the then five nation initiative, four nations were left: the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Spain, and it was decided in June 1986 to create a consortium, Eurofighter GmbH, based in Munich to develop a new fighter aircraft.

The construction of the first Typhoon prototypes began in 1989 and it was agreed that each of the four parent nations would host the production line and final assembly for the components of the aircraft it was responsible for: Warton for BAE Systems, Manching for EADS Germany, Turin for Alenia Aeronautica and Getafe for EADS CASA.

A programme milestone was reached in December 1997 when the Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) covering Production and Support was signed by the four defence ministers in Bonn. NETMA and Eurofighter GmbH subsequently signed the initial production and support contracts for the purchase of 620 aircraft on 30 January 1998.

To take in to account the growth potential of the aircraft and the possibility to insert new capabilities in the future, the decision was that the production of the aircraft would be divided into three Tranches: the first one for 148 aircraft, the second and the third for 236 each, with the Tranche 1 planned in production between 2003 and 2007; Tranche 2 in production between 2007 and 2012 and the Tranche 3 in production between 2012 and 2017.
The contract for the engines, foreseen at a total of 1.382 EJ200, was also split accordingly to match the three aircraft production tranches.

The Tranche 1 contract for the now officially named Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft was signed on 18 September 1998. This fixed-price contract covers the production of the first Tranche of 148 aircraft for a value of about 7 billion euro.

Work on the first sub-assemblies for the first series production Eurofighter aircraft had commenced in late 1998 and deliveries to the customer, started in summer 2003 when over 100 aircraft were at various stages of production at the four partner companies assembly lines. The first Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft were accepted by the four air forces between 2003 and the beginning of 2004, the first one to the Luftwaffe, then to the RAF who keep their first aircraft in Warton for flying training, third to receive their aircraft were the Spanish Ejercito de l’Aire and finally to Italian Aeronautica Militare. The aircraft entered into service with all four nations in spring 2004.

In July 2003, Eurofighter GmbH signed its first export contract. Austria reached an agreement for the delivery of 18 aircraft to start in 2007. This contract was revised in 2007, after a budget review, and the delivery of 15 aircraft of Tranche 1 standard was finally decided on.

On 14 December 2004 Eurofighter and NETMA signed the Tranche 2 production contract - worth Euro 13 billion - for 236 aircraft - confirming Eurofighter’s position of having the largest order book of any next-generation fighter aircraft.

2007 was the year of a second export success for the Eurofighter Typhoon with an important contract signed by the governments of the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia for the delivery of 72 Tranche 2 production standard aircraft to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Air Force. It was agreed that the first 24 aircraft manufactured by BAE Systems, would be drawn from the batch assigned to the RAF and then replaced by new production aircraft, but the subsequent deliveries would be assembled in Saudi Arabia, in a new purpose built facility, allowing the establishment of the first nucleus of a manufacturing capability in the aerospace field for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The first aircraft for KSA has been delivered in June 2009.
    
2009 marked another important step in the programme’s history as on 31 July the four nations of the Eurofighter consortium signed the contract for the first part of the Tranche 3 production aircraft (112 units) for a value, engines included, of 9 Billion euro.