Fresh on the heels of Spain’s order for 25 new Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, Italy has now signed a contract for 24 jets to replace earlier Tranche 1 airframes.
The long rumored, and now confirmed, order for new jets comes after the Italian Ministry of Defense officially requested governmental approval for the procurement in July of this year. It is the second order this week for the Eurofighter consortium, who concluded a deal with the Spanish Air Force for 25 Typhoons to replace older EF-18 Hornet aircraft.
Replacing Tranche 1 aircraft, which have been in service with the Italian Air Force since the type’s introduction in the early 2000s, the new airframes will be delivered with significant new technologies which are incompatible with or uneconomical to integrate onto older aircraft.
BREAKING: Italy orders up to 24 Eurofighter Typhoon jets 🇮🇹m
This major milestone follows last week’s Spanish order for 25 aircraft, reinforcing Eurofighter’s role in modernising European air defence. ✈️
CEO Giancarlo Mezzanatto said two Core Nations placing new orders in one… pic.twitter.com/MfFrEeHYgL
— Eurofighter Typhoon (@eurofighter) December 23, 2024
In Italian service the Typhoon is designated F-2000A, with twin seaters known as TF-2000As, but the Typhoon nomenclature is routinely used in service and even in official Italian Air Force communications.
The new orders, like Italy’s present aircraft, will be assembled at the Leonardo production facility in Turin, Italy. Parts for each airframe will be produced by individual manufacturers across Europe.
Have you ever wondered how a #Eurofighter is built? It takes a total of 14 steps to finish a #EurofighterTyphoon. The Eurofighter is European through and through with different parts coming from the partner companies that make up the so called Eurofighter consortium: Airbus in… pic.twitter.com/BBBHsRe1c5
— Airbus Defence (@AirbusDefence) December 27, 2023
Italy currently operates Typhoons from Tranches 1, 2 and 3, and will be the fourth nation to order airframes from Tranche 4 or above. All core nations that form the Eurofighter consortium have placed orders for new aircraft except the United Kingdom. Germany’s recent procurement proposals have referred to a Tranche 5, more details of which will likely be revealed in the coming years. Tranche 4 deliveries are presently expected to continue until 2030.
The exact configuration of the new Italian aircraft is still currently unknown, but will likely include the new European Common Radar System (ECRS). This Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, also known as Captor-E, replaces the mechanically scanned Captor-M pulse doppler radar presently fitted to most operational aircraft. Additional upgrades being developed for newly produced Typhoons under the Phase 4 Enhancement program include increased electronic warfare capabilities, an improved defensive aids sub-system (DASS), and automated sensor management.
From new, the latest Typhoons will be compatible with modern munitions and sensors such as the MBDA Meteor, Brimstone III, and the Rafael Litening V pod. Incompatibility with these new capabilities is a major factor driving forward the retirement of Tranche 1 jets.
The Chief Executive of the Eurofighter consortium, Giancarlo Mezzanatto, says that the order demonstrates the “strength and importance that Eurofighter Typhoon brings to Europe”.
Air Vice-Marshal Simon Ellard (ret), who currently oversees the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency, added that “The order, which follows the contract for 25 additional jets for the Spanish Air Force signed on the 20th of December, demonstrates that the Eurofighter Typhoon continues to be the backbone of European air defence.”
Alongside the aforementioned order for 25 new aircraft for the Spanish Air Force, a significant amount of orders have also been placed by the German Air Force. A total of 58 additional airframes are due for delivery over the coming years, which will extend Germany’s status as the largest Typhoon operator. A total of 201 Typhoons have been ordered by Germany to date, with the United Kingdom in second place with 160 orders.
The United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force received its last Typhoon delivery in 2019 and, despite strong encouragement for new batches of airframes, has yet to place any orders beyond Tranche 3. Most of the force’s 30 remaining Tranche 1 airframes will be retired on Mar. 31, 2025 without direct replacement.
Four Tranche 1 aircraft will remain in RAF service for some time with 1435 Flight, based at RAF Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands, who recently completed an airframe swap. Three aircraft (ZJ926, ZJ933, ZJ941) returned from the detachment and flew directly into BAE Warton for ‘reduce to produce’ (RTP), meaning the aircraft will serve as donors for spare parts. They were replaced by three Tranche 1 aircraft (ZJ920, ZJ928, ZJ942) from RAF Lossiemouth, joining ZJ915 which has been ‘down south’ since 2015.
Preparing for the Future
The Eurofighter Typhoon’s lifespan is currently expected to stretch as far as 2060. A desire to maintain production capabilities continuously has influenced many recent orders for the type by consortium partners. Order books as they stand today will see production continue until at least 2030. Follow-on orders for subsequent Tranche 5 aircraft, or even new variants such as the Eurofighter EK, are hoped to extend demand beyond this date.
As two of the three main partners in the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), also known as Tempest, Italy and the United Kingdom see their long term ambitions with the notionally sixth gen aircraft. Germany and Spain intend to join with France to produce a competitor airframe under the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program, but all evidence so far points to the development of this concept being far behind GCAP.
Shots fired towards #FCAS/#SCAF today from BAE Systems on call to discuss new #GCAP joint venture, with official positing, “Hopefully you will agree with me that the GCAP programme is the only credible sixth-generation programme out there, outside Russia, China and the US.” pic.twitter.com/st1QEOjB0l
— Gareth Jennings (@GarethJennings3) December 13, 2024
Looking with the future, and GCAP, in mind, Italy and the United Kingdom signed an implementation agreement in Jan. 2024 to allow for increased inter-operation between the Italian Air Force and Royal Air Force. Engineers from each force will be permitted to perform some degree of maintenance on each others’ aircraft. Both nations operate the Eurofighter Typhoon as well as the F-35B Lightning II. The agreement is intended to eventually extend to the GCAP airframe when it enters operational service.
