Berlin, Germany – During the first day of the ILA Berlin International Aerospace Exhibition, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced an agreement with Airbus Defence & Space for the purchase of 20 Eurofighter jets for the German Air Force (Luftwaffe).
???? Just announced at #ILA24: Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Germany will order 20 Eurofighters for @team_luftwaffe in the current legislative period, adding to the 38 aircraft from the Quadriga contract that are already being produced. We welcome this decision as an important… pic.twitter.com/CM38LDWfTH
— Airbus Defence (@AirbusDefence) June 5, 2024
“We want a strong aerospace industry in Germany and Europe. This includes planning for security in the defense industry. That is why we are guaranteeing the reliability of orders, among other things, by ordering 20 more Eurofighters before the end of this legislative period, in addition to the 38 aircraft currently on order,” Chancellor Scholz said.
This new order is in addition to the 38 Eurofighter aircraft from the Quadriga project, which includes the delivery of 30 single-seat and 8 two-seat Eurofighters. These fighters belong to Tranche 4 and come with software updates and AESA E-Scan MK1 radars, a joint development between Spain and Germany. The E-Scan MK1 will be the first production AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radars for the Eurofighter..
“Today’s announcement by the German government is great news for the Eurofighter program and for our industrial partners. It underlines Germany’s long-term commitment to the Eurofighter,” said Giancarlo Mezzanatto, CEO of Eurofighter.
Airbus and the Eurofighter consortium expect Germany to place additional orders in the medium term, along with future purchases by Spain (Halcón II project) and Italy, which would guarantee the continued operation of production lines beyond 2030.
See also: Let’s take a closer look at the Wingman, Airbus’ advanced unmanned combat system
At this time, it has not been publicly reported which Tranche the new 20 fighters promised by Scholz belong to, whether they will be Tranche 4 (the most advanced version currently in production) or if they will belong to the future Tranche 5 promoted by Airbus. This and other key aspects, such as acquisition cost, logistics package extension or delivery times, will begin to be defined in the discussions phase, initiated after the announcement, between Airbus and the German government.
The Tranche 5 standard will take the Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar E-Scan, as well as the defensive aids and the improvements in the human-machine interface (HMI) included in the latest Tranche 4 under contracts for Germany (Project Quadriga) and Spain (Project Halcón), to which some or all of the updates that are being developed for the Long Term Evolution (LTE) package can be added, which seeks to keep the Eurofighter as a relevant weapon system until the 2060s.
