300th production Eurofighter handed over to Spanish Air Force »

By Leandro Maldonado
20 October 2011

Marked 11-28: the 300th serial production Eurofighter Typhoon already sporting the codes and emblems of the Ejército del Aire's Ala de Caza 11 seen in Madrid-Getafe. © Cassidian

Madrid, 18 October 2011 — The 300th Eurofighter Typhoon produced by the four partner companies of the European consortium (Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) was delivered today by Cassidian to the Ejercito del Aire (Spanish Air Force) for use by Ala 11 in Morón de la Frontera near Sevilla. This milestone makes the Eurofighter Typhoon the only modern European generation multi-role aircraft nowadays in full production to reach the impressive figure of 300 examples in service, the Saab Gripen having only been produced so far in over 200 copies and the Dassault Rafale in just 100.

Eurofighter Typhoons are now in service with 16 flying units in six different air forces — United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Austria. To date, the whole fleet has completed over 130,000 flying hours which is however slightly less than the level attained by the much smaller Rafale and Gripen fleets — something allegedly due to higher day-to-day operating costs reported by the British National Accounting Office in a recent document which points that there are "major problems with spare parts and support". Unsurprisingly, as the Eurofighter's manufacturing is distributed across Germany, Spain and Italy as well as the UK, four countries which are now all looking to cut down their national defence budgets on account of the strong economic recession now impacting the EU.

Let's recall here that the Eurofighter Typhoon is developed and manufactured by EADS Cassidian in Germany and Spain, BAE Systems in the UK and Alenia Aeronautica in Italy. The aircraft is unique in modern combat aircraft in that there are four separate assembly lines, thus preserving national interests in each of the four partner countries, but with a significant impact on overall cost which have made this fighter plane the most expensive of all in Europe. Each partner company assembles its own national aircraft, but builds the same parts for all 635 aircraft so far on order. A fifth assembly line was planned to be established for the final 48 Saudi aircraft, but this has not come to fruition yet. The delivery of the 300th Eurofighter Typhoon coincides with the Seoul Air Show 2011 where Eurofighter GmbH is exhibiting its capabilities to support the campaign for the RoKAF's FX-III acquisition project where the South Korean Defence Ministry is seeking to purchase some 60 next-generation fighters with the target of having them delivered for operational service in 2016.

Employees of EADS-Cassidian in Spain gather around the 300th production Eurofighter aircraft in Madrid-Getafe. © Cassidian

Eurofighter GmbH's customer is the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency (NETMA), operating on behalf of the partner nations. This collaborative management model follows that of the Tornado programme closely.

Source: EUROFIGHTER

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