Leonardo delivered to the Kuwaiti Air Force (KAF) its first 2 Eurofighter Typhoons, in a ceremony that took place on Tuesday at the Caselle air base, near the city of Turin.
The 2 aircraft will be arriving at their new home in Kuwait next week.
The 28 Typhoons (22 single-seat and 6 two-seat) were acquired by Kuwait in 2016 under a contract valued at $8.7 billion. This also contemplates the training of pilots and ground personnel by the Italian Air Force and Leonardo, as well as logistics and an initial operational support package for 3 years.
It also includes the provision of equipment and devices to enable the installation of an operational conversion unit in Kuwait, as well as the modernization and modification of the Al-Salem airbase to accommodate the Typhoon squadron.
The most modern Eurofighter yet
When they enter service, the KAF fighters will be the most advanced Eurofighters in the world, because they will come integrated with the new standard Phase 3 Enhancements Package b (P3Eb), and will be the first to be equipped with the initial production version of the Captor E AESA (or ECRS Mk 0) radar.
The ECRS Mk 0 radar is characterized by developing high emission power and having a very wide scanning field (of 200°), by combining the electronic scanning enabled by AESA technology with a mobile antenna base; unlike the fixed antennas of most modern fighter AESAs.
The Kuwaiti Entry-Into-Service (EIS) standard represents the first phase of the P3Eb and includes the new ECRS Mk0 radar, the advanced Sniper laser designator pod with data link, VOR navigation capability and the P5 ACMI pod (which provides real-time air-to-air training emulating the use of IRIS-T and AMRAAM C7 guns and missiles).
The initial armament package will include free-fall bombs (Mk 82, 83 and 84 series), IRIS-T and AIM-120C7 AMRAAM missiles. The aircraft will have initial Meteor long-range missile training capability.
Later, the aircraft will be upgraded to KAF Enhanced standard, introducing improvements to the ECRS Mk 0 radar, full Meteor air-to-air missile capability, GBU-31 JDAM precision guided bombs, enhanced Sniper pod and upgrades to the P5 ACMI training system. The package also includes the integration of MBDA Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles and Brimstone air-to-surface missiles.
