Eurofighter Typhoon
The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, supersonic, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo that conducts the majority of the project through a joint holding company, Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH. The NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency, representing the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain, manages the project and is the prime customer.
The aircraft's development began in 1983 with the Future European Fighter Aircraft programme, a multinational collaboration among the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Previously, Germany, Italy and the UK had jointly developed and deployed the Panavia Tornado combat aircraft and desired to collaborate on a new project with additional participating EU nations. However, disagreements over design authority and operational requirements led France to leave the consortium to develop the Dassault Rafale independently. A technology demonstration aircraft, the British Aerospace EAP, first flew on 6 August 1986; a Eurofighter prototype made its maiden flight on 27 March 1994. The aircraft's name, Typhoon, was adopted in September 1998 and the first production contracts were also signed that year.
The sudden end of the Cold War reduced European demand for fighter aircraft which led to debate over the aircraft's cost, division of work between the partner nations, and protracted development. The Typhoon entered operational service in 2003 and is now in service with the air forces of Austria, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Kuwait and Qatar have also ordered the aircraft, bringing the procurement total to 680 aircraft as of 2023.
The Eurofighter Typhoon is a highly agile aircraft, designed to be an effective dogfighter in combat. Later production aircraft have been increasingly better equipped to undertake air-to-surface strike missions and to be compatible with an increasing number of different armaments and equipment, including Storm Shadow, Brimstone and Marte ER missiles. The Typhoon had its combat debut during the 2011 military intervention in Libya with the UK's Royal Air Force and the Italian Air Force, performing aerial reconnaissance and ground strike missions. The type has also taken primary responsibility for air defence duties for the majority of customer nations.
Development
Origins
In the UK, as early as 1971, work commenced on the development of a maneuverable, tactical aircraft to replace the SEPECAT Jaguar. This work soon expanded to include an air superiority capability. A specification titled Air Staff Target 403, in 1972, led to the Hawker P.96, an unbuilt design with a relatively conventional planform, including a separate tail structure, in the late 1970s.Simultaneously, in West Germany, the requirement for a new fighter had resulted in competition between Dornier, VFW-Fokker and Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm for a future Luftwaffe contract known as Taktisches Kampfflugzeug 90. Dornier collaborated with Northrop in the US on an acclaimed but unsuccessful design known as the. MBB was successful, with a design including a cranked delta wing, close-coupled-canard controls, and artificial stability.
In 1979, MBB and British Aerospace presented a formal proposal to their respective governments for a collaboration, to be known as the European Collaborative Fighter, or European Combat Fighter. In October 1979, French firm Dassault joined the ECF project. It was at this stage of development the Eurofighter name was first attached to the aircraft. However, the development of three separate prototypes continued: MBB continued to refine its TKF-90 concept, and Dassault produced a design known as the ACX.
In the meantime, while the P.96 would have met the original UK specification, it had been cancelled because it was considered to offer little potential for future upgrades and redevelopment. In addition, there was a feeling within the UK aircraft industry that the P.96 would have been too similar to the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet, which was then known to be at an advanced stage of development. The P.96 would not have been available until long after the Hornet, which would therefore likely have met and closed off most potential export markets for the P.96.
BAe then produced two new proposals: the P.106B, a single-engined lightweight fighter, superficially resembling the future Saab JAS 39 Gripen and the twin-engine P.110. The RAF rejected the P.106 concept on the grounds it had "half the effectiveness of the two-engined aircraft at two-thirds of the cost."
The ECF project collapsed in 1981 for several reasons, including differing requirements, Dassault's insistence on "design leadership," and the British preference for a new version of the RB199 to power the aircraft versus the French preference for the new Snecma M88.
File:British Aerospace EAP at the Farnborough Air Show, 1986.jpg|thumb|British Aerospace EAP ZF534 at the Farnborough Air Show, 1986
Consequently, the Panavia partners launched the Agile Combat Aircraft programme in April 1982. BAe designers agreed with the overall configuration of the proposed MBB TKF-90, although they rejected some of its more ambitious features such as engine vectoring nozzles and vented trailing edge controls—a form of boundary layer control. The ACA, like the BAe P.110, had a cranked delta wing, canards, and a twin tail. One major external difference was the replacement of the side-mounted engine intakes with a chin intake. The ACA was to be powered by a modified version of the RB199. The German and Italian governments withdrew funding, and the UK Ministry of Defence agreed to fund 50% of the cost with the remaining 50% to be provided by industry. MBB and Aeritalia signed up and it was agreed that the aircraft would be produced at two sites: BAe Warton and an MBB factory in Germany. In May 1983, BAe announced a contract with the MoD for the development and production of an ACA demonstrator, the Experimental Aircraft Programme.
In 1983, Italy, Germany, France, the UK and Spain launched the "Future European Fighter Aircraft" programme. The aircraft was to have short take off and landing and beyond visual range capabilities. In 1984, France reiterated its requirement for a carrier-capable version and demanded a leading role. Italy, West Germany, and the UK opted out and established a new EFA programme. In Turin on 2 August 1985, West Germany, the UK, and Italy agreed to go ahead with the Eurofighter and confirmed France and Spain had chosen not to proceed as a member of the project. Despite pressure from France, Spain rejoined the Eurofighter project in early September 1985. France officially withdrew from the project to pursue its own ACX project, which was to become the Dassault Rafale.
By 1986, the programme's cost had reached £180 million. When the EAP programme had started, the cost was supposed to be equally shared by government and industry, but the West German and Italian governments wavered on the agreement, and the British government and private finance had to provide £100 million to keep the programme from ending. In April 1986, the British Aerospace EAP was rolled out at BAe Warton. The EAP first flew on 6 August 1986. The Eurofighter bears a strong resemblance to the EAP. Design work continued over the next five years using data from the EAP. Initial requirements were: UK: 250 aircraft, Germany: 250, Italy: 165 and Spain: 100.
The share of the production work was divided among the countries in proportion to their projected procurement – BAe, DASA, Aeritalia, and Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA .
The Munich-based Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH was established in 1986 to manage development of the project and EuroJet Turbo GmbH, the alliance of Rolls-Royce, MTU Aero Engines, FiatAvio and ITP for development of the EJ200. The aircraft was known as Eurofighter EFA from the late 1980s until it was renamed EF 2000 in 1992.
By 1990, the selection of the aircraft's radar had become a major obstacle. The UK, Italy and Spain supported the Ferranti Defence Systems-led ECR-90, while Germany preferred the APG-65-based MSD2000. An agreement was reached after UK Defence Secretary Tom King assured his West German counterpart Gerhard Stoltenberg that the British government would approve the project and allow the GEC subsidiary Marconi Electronic Systems to acquire Ferranti Defence Systems from its parent, the Ferranti Group, which was in financial and legal difficulties. GEC thus withdrew its support for the MSD2000.
Delays
The financial burdens placed on Germany by reunification caused Helmut Kohl to make an election promise to cancel the Eurofighter. In early to mid 1991, German Defence Minister Volker Rühe sought to withdraw Germany from the project in favour of using Eurofighter technology in a cheaper, lighter plane. Because of the amount of money already spent on development, the number of jobs dependent on the project, and the binding commitments on each partner government, Kohl was unable to withdraw; "Rühe's predecessors had locked themselves into the project by a punitive penalty system of their own devising."In 1995, concerns over workshare appeared. Since the formation of Eurofighter, the workshare split had been agreed at 33/33/21/13 based on the number of units being ordered by each contributing nation. All the nations then reduced their orders; the UK cut its orders from 250 to 232, Germany from 250 to 140, Italy from 165 to 121, and Spain from 100 to 87. According to these order levels, the workshare split should have been 39/24/22/15 UK/Germany/Italy/Spain; however, Germany was unwilling to give up such a large amount of work. In January 1996, after much negotiation between German and UK partners, a compromise was reached whereby Germany would purchase another 40 aircraft. The workshare split was therefore UK 37.42%, Germany 29.03%, Italy 19.52% and Spain 14.03%.
At the 1996 Farnborough Airshow the UK announced funding for the construction phase of the project. On 22 December 1997 the defence ministers of the four partner nations signed the contract for production of the Eurofighter.