A Happy Christmas for Eurofighter: Spain and Italy have signed contracts for additional Eurofighter Typhoons
Giancarlo Mezzanatto, Chief Executive of Eurofighter GmbH greeted the orders with enthusiasm, saying that: “During this past seven days we have seen two of the four Eurofighter Core Nations sign…
December 23, 2024
Giancarlo Mezzanatto, Chief Executive of Eurofighter GmbH greeted the orders with enthusiasm, saying that: “During this past seven days we have seen two of the four Eurofighter Core Nations sign new contract orders, with a clear desire to modernise their Air Forces and confirming the crucial role they attribute to our aircraft.”
The Eurofighter programme remains an engine for economic prosperity, and has secured and sustained more than 100,000 jobs in Europe, across 400 European companies. A report by PwC earlier this year estimated that the programme could contribute €90 billion to Europe’s GDP and generate €22 billion in tax revenue over the next decade.
To date, more than 700 Eurofighters have been ordered by eight nations, and after something of a hiatus, the programme has enjoyed what Giancarlo Mezzanatto, the Chief Executive of Eurofighter, calls a ‘renaissance’. In June 2023 Mezzanatto revealed a target of securing orders for 150-200 Eurofighters within a two-year window of opportunity. Germany had already signed for 38 new aircraft under the Quadriga programme, and planned to buy 20 more, while Spain had signed for 20 aircraft under Halcon I, of a total requirement for 45. Italy was expected to modernise its fleet with 24 new aircraft. Of the four partner nations, only the UK has failed to purchase additional aircraft, and with the pending retirement of its Tranche 1 aircraft, it will soon have the smallest fleet of the original core partner nations, having once had the largest!
Mezzanatto said that further sales targets for the consortium included 54 aircraft for Saudi Arabia, 12 for Qatar, 32 for Poland and 40 for Turkey. The Eurofighter CEO greeted the new orders from Spain and Italy as marking “another proud chapter in the programme’s ‘renaissance’ period, securing industrial activity until at least 2035,” and said that they would: “bring significant economic benefits to our core nations and the economies of Europe.”
It also means Eurofighter will remain at the forefront of European combat air capability, with a service life stretching out to 2060 and beyond.
AGN will look at the individual Spanish and Italian orders in more detail in the coming days.
