ILA 2018: Eurofighter touts Typhoon as pathway to FCAS future combat aircraft

[Zarvan]

Eurofighter says that further development of the Typhoon would bridge the gap through to the FCAS future fighter to be developed by Airbus and Dassault. Source: Eurofighter

Eurofighter has touted its Typhoon as a technological pathway to the new Future Combat Air System (FCAS) being developed by France and Germany.

Speaking at the ILA Airshow in Berlin, consortium representatives said that upgrades planned for the Typhoon over the coming years would better enable Airbus and Dassault to fully develop their FCAS solution by the 2040 timeline currently set out.

“The Typhoon is Europe’s largest defence project, with 623 aircraft ordered across nine nations. Of these, 536 have been delivered and more than 450,000 hours flown,” Volker Paltzo, Eurofighter CEO said on 25 April, adding: “There are further potential orders for the core nations [of Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom] that would take production well into the 2030s, and the aircraft itself will remain in service through to the 2060s. As we continue to develop new technologies and capabilities, the Typhoon will serve as a natural bridge into the FCAS project.”

With Germany looking to procure up to 90 new aircraft to replace its Panavia Tornados, and the Typhoon declared to be the government’s preferred option, it is this requirement that is driving the Eurofighters development path. As Paltzo noted, enhancements earmarked include upgrades to the E-Scan radar now being developed; long-range and standoff weapons; enhanced defensive aids; improvements to the efficiency and power output of the EJ200 engines (he cited a 15% increase in power); as well as enhancements related to the suppression of enemy air defences (SEAD) role currently undertaken by the Luftwaffe’s Tornado Electronic Combat Reconnaissance (ECR) platforms.

While Paltzo said that securing the German requirement is not essential to these enhancements being rolled out (besides Germany, a follow-on order with Saudi Arabia has been all-but-signed and other deals with other current and new operators could yet be fulfilled), it would be best solution for Germany to select the aircraft that it already operates.

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[Taygibay]

Sure! Well, except that the UK just used
its own soon-to-be-replaced Tonkas to
bomb Syria because the Phoons don't do
the job as well quite yet!

Which is why they list stuff that isn't even
ready like talking of upgrades to a late E-
CAPTOR which itself just got set back a year.

Viel Glück, Tay.