Eurofighter GmbH

Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH (Template:Langx) is a German-headquartered multinational company and joint venture that coordinates the design, production and upgrade of the Eurofighter Typhoon military jet.

Founded in 1986,<ref>Cowton, Rodney. "Eurofighter partners: West Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain." The Times, 7 June 1986.</ref> it has its head office in Hallbergmoos, Germany.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The company is owned by the major aerospace companies of the four Eurofighter partner nations:

• 46%: Airbus Defence and Space (then known as EADS) (France, Germany and Spain)
• 33%: BAE Systems Military Air & Information (United Kingdom)
• 21%: Leonardo (Italy)

The Typhoon’s engine is designed and manufactured by EuroJet Turbo GmbH, another consortium of European companies.

Eurofighter's customer is the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency (NETMA), operating on behalf of the partner nations. The production and management model closely follows that of the earlier Tornado fighter jet programme. In that case, the Panavia Aircraft partnership was responsible for delivering the aircraft, and the Turbo-Union consortium was responsible for the propulsion system.

History

The first production contract was signed on 30 January 1998 between Eurofighter GmbH, Eurojet and NETMA.<ref name="BBC">BBC "Euro-fighter contracts signed." BBC News, 30 January 1998. Retrieved: 18 September 2007.</ref> The procurement totals were as follows: the UK 232, Germany 180, Italy 121, and Spain 87. Production was again allotted according to procurement: BAe (37.42%), DASA (29.03%), Aeritalia (19.52%), and CASA (14.03%). However, during 1995, concerns over workshare, which was based on the number of units intended to be ordered by each contributing nation, were voiced, as all nations involved had opted to reduce their orders following the end of the Cold War and the enactment of the Peace Dividend. 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.<ref name="BBCwomc"/> 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.<ref name="BBCwomc">Eurofighter: Weapon of Mass Construction (TV broadcast). BBC, 6 July 2003 airdate.</ref> In January 1996, after much negotiation between German and UK partners, a compromise was reached whereby Germany would purchase another 40 aircraft.<ref name="BBCwomc"/> The workshare split was 43% for EADS MAS in Germany and Spain; 37.5% BAE Systems in the UK; and 19.5% for Alenia in Italy.<ref>Haertl, Ronald. "Eurofighter—A Milestone Report". Template:Webarchive European Security and Defence. Retrieved: 3 July 2011.</ref>

The maiden flight of the Eurofighter prototype took place in Bavaria on 27 March 1994, flown by DASA chief test pilot Peter Weger.<ref name="maiden">"1994: Maiden flight for future fighter jet." BBC News, 27 February 1994. Retrieved: 19 March 2008.</ref> On 9Template:NbspDecember 2004, Eurofighter Typhoon IPA4 began three months of Cold Environmental Trials (CET) at the Vidsel Air Base in Sweden, the purpose of which was to verify the operational behaviour of the aircraft and its systems in temperatures between −25 and 31 °C.<ref>Hastings, David. "Eurofighter Typhoon." Template:Webarchive targetlock.org, 6 October 2009. Retrieved: 12 October 2009.</ref> The maiden flight of Instrumented Production AircraftTemplate:Nbsp7 (IPA7), the first fully equipped TrancheTemplate:Nbsp2 aircraft, took place from EADS' Manching airfield on 16 January 2008.<ref>Hoeveler, Wolfdietrich and Phillip Lee. "First Tranche 2 Eurofighter Typhoon Has Flown." eurofighter.com, 2009. Retrieved: 12 October 2009.</ref>

In September 1998, contracts were signed for production of 148 TrancheTemplate:Nbsp1 aircraft and procurement of long lead-time items for TrancheTemplate:Nbsp2 aircraft.<ref>Chuter, Andy. "EF2000 deal firms up first batch order." Flight International, 23 September 1998.</ref> In March 2008, the final aircraft out of TrancheTemplate:Nbsp1 was delivered to the German Air Force, with all successive deliveries being at the TrancheTemplate:Nbsp2 standard.<ref>Holm, Kathryn and Martina Schmidmeir. "German Air Force: 10,000 Flying Hours with the Eurofighter." Template:Webarchive Eurofighter.com, 16 March 2009. Retrieved: 3 July 2011.</ref> On 21 October 2008, the first two of 91 TrancheTemplate:Nbsp2 aircraft, ordered four years before, were delivered to RAF Coningsby.<ref>"New Typhoons fly into RAF Coningsby." Template:Webarchive Mod.uk via Defence News, 20 February 2007. Retrieved: 28 November 2009.</ref>

German Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon 31+17 during takeoff, July 2010

In October 2008, the Eurofighter nations were considering splitting the 236-fighter TrancheTemplate:Nbsp3 into two parts.<ref>Hoyle, Craig. "Eurofighter nations offered split deal for Tranche 3 order." Flight International via flightglobal.com, 7 October 2008. Retrieved 30 November 2009.</ref> In June 2009, RAF Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy suggested that the RAF fleet could be 123 jets, instead of the 232 previously planned.<ref>Rayment, Sean. "RAF chief predicts controversial takeover of Royal Naval air power." Telegraph, 7 June 2009. Retrieved: 30 November 2009.</ref> In spite of this reduced requirement, on 14 May 2009 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed the UK would move ahead with the third batch purchase. A contract for the first part, Tranche 3A, was signed during July 2009 for 112 aircraft split across the four partner nations, including 40 aircraft for the UK, 31 for Germany, 21 for Italy and 20 for Spain.<ref>Miatt, Rob and John Neilson. "BAE Systems Welcomes Signing of Typhoon Tranche 3 Production Contract." Template:Webarchive BAE Systems, 31 July 2009. Retrieved: 30 November 2009.</ref><ref name="FI partners sign 3A deal"/> These 40 aircraft were said to have fully covered the UK's obligations in the project due to cost overruns.<ref>Doyle, Andrew. "UK has 'no obligation' to meet 232-aircraft Typhoon pledge." Flight International via flightglobal.com, 19 September 2009. Retrieved: 21 July 2010.</ref> In February 2019, Germany ordered 33 further Typhoons to replace ageing TrancheTemplate:Nbsp1 aircraft.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Eurofighter Typhoon is unique in modern combat aircraft in that there are four separate assembly lines. Each partner company assembles its own national aircraft, but builds the same parts for all aircraft (including exports); Premium AEROTEC (main centre fuselage),<ref>Sanchez, Miguel and Serena Di Martino. "EADS-CASA begins the Eurofighter Typhoon final assembly phase." Template:Webarchive eads.com, 26 July 2001. Retrieved: 3 July 2011.</ref> EADS CASA (right wing, leading edge slats), BAE Systems (front fuselage (including foreplanes), canopy, dorsal spine, tail fin, inboard flaperons, rear fuselage section) and Leonardo (left wing, outboard flaperons, rear fuselage sections).

Production is divided into three tranches (see table below). Tranches are a production/funding distinction, and do not imply an incremental increase in capability with each tranche. TrancheTemplate:Nbsp3 are based on late TrancheTemplate:Nbsp2 aircraft with improvements added. TrancheTemplate:Nbsp3 was split into A and B parts.<ref name="FI partners sign 3A deal">Hoyle, Craig. "Eurofighter partners sign €9 billion Tranche 3A deal." Flight International via flightglobal.com, 31 July 2009. Retrieved: 7 July 2012.</ref> Tranches were further divided up into production standard/capability blocks and funding/procurement batches, though these did not coincide, and are not the same thing; e.g., the Eurofighter designated FGR4 by the RAF is a Tranche 1, block 5. BatchTemplate:Nbsp1 covered block 1, but batchTemplate:Nbsp2 covered blocks 2, 2B and 5. On 25 May 2011 the 100th production aircraft, ZK315, rolled off the production line at BAE Systems' site at Warton.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Expected production summary

Tranche	Austria	Germany	Italy	Kuwait	Oman	Saudi Arabia	Spain	UK	Qatar	Total
Tranche 1	15Template:Refn	33	28	–	–	–	19	53	–	148
Tranche 2<ref>Hoyle, Craig. "UK to receive first Tranche 2 Eurofighter Typhoons." Flightglobal.com, 21 October 2008. Retrieved: 7 July 2012.</ref>	–	79	47	–	–	48	34	67Template:Refn	–	275
Tranche 3A<ref name="FI partners sign 3A deal"/>	–	31	21	28	12	24	20	40	24	200
Total	15	143	96	28	12	72	73	160	24	623

External links

• Eurofighter website (operated by Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH)