Kuwait Buys 28 Eurofighter Typhoons

Kuwait has agreed to purchase 28 Typhoon combat jets in a multibillion euro deal with the Italian government, industry sources in the region said Friday.

The deal is still in negotiation but Kuwait has agreed to buy 22 single seat and six twin-seat Typhoons in a government-to-government agreement.

Italian firm Finmeccanica's Alenia Aermacchi division has been leading the Eurofighter effort to sell the Typhoon to the Kuwaitis.

Industry sources said the deal could see the Kuwaitis be the first export customer for the active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar being developed for the jet by Italy's Selex ES.

One industry executive said the agreement is welcome, not least because after a flurry of Middle Eastern successes this year for French rival Dassault with the Rafale, the Kuwaiti decision "reinvigorates other opportunities in the gulf region for Typhoon."

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And Boeing gets the boot.  No sale for you!

Canadian Government Report Questions Utility of F-35 Purchase Given "Canadian engagement in future state-on-state conflicts will be highly unlikely"

A new Canadian government report suggests other fighter jets are just as capable as the Lockheed Martin F-35A at fulfilling the nation’s most likely mission needs, potentially opening the door to a competitive acquisition process to replace a fleet of 77 Boeing CF-18s.

Four aircraft – the F-35, the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, Dassault Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon – were compared in the report, called the Evaluation of Options for the Replacement of the CF-18 Fighter Fleet.

Each was assessed on its ability to carry out six mission sets including defence of Canadian airspace, responding to an “international event”, such as the Olympics, in Canada or a terrorist attack, peace enforcement, humanitarian disaster relief and state-on-state war fighting.

All aircraft were deemed low-risk candidates to perform each of the missions up to 2030 and beyond, except in fighting another peer nation. In that category, all the aircraft were deemed a higher risk platform beyond 2030 and none distinguished itself.

Canada does not intend to fight state-on-state wars and rated that contingency as highly unlikely. In the state-on-state war fighting mission, the range was from low to significant in the first timeframe and medium to high in the second timeframe “largely due to the higher level of potential threat confronting fighter aircraft in that mission and the evolution of those threats”, the report says.

“The mission needs analysis undertaken as part of the evaluation of options makes clear that Canadian engagement in future state-on-state conflicts will be highly unlikely,” the report says.

It is more likely that Canada will join in on coalition military actions not “clearly defined state-on-state warfare or explicitly humanitarian assistance missions but rather, as in the case of Libya or Kosovo, something in between,” the report says.

For now, the Harper Administration in Canada still intends to buy 65 F-35s beginning in 2020. Its third annual report on the cost of potentially replacing its fleet of CF-18s with the jet assumes an average per-unit cost of $88.9 million over the period of acquisition. That tallies up to a total $45.8 billion over the life cycle of the fleet, a $141 million increase over the estimate in the 2013 report.

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Britain Formally Orders First 4 F-35s: Two Typhoons & a Lightning

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Most Spanish Eurofighters Cannot Fly

According to Spanish daily El Confidencial Digital, unnamed military sources have warned that the Eurofighter Typhoon air fleet is crippled by breakdowns, lack of spare parts and delayed inspections.

The claims come just a day after Spain announced plans to pump €10 billion ($12.7 billion) into new defence programs after six years of cutbacks as a result of the economic crisis.

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Germany is not really in any better position.

I worry NATO is America and just America.

Eurofighter has Manufacturing Defects

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Eurofighter’s Typhoon is Being Upgraded

Eurofighter’s Typhoon multi-role aircraft is being equipped with a new precision-guided, stealthy long-range cruise missile and an active electronically scanned array radar system, company officials said at the Farnborough International Air Show.

The enhancements are the latest in a series of technological upgrades for the roughly decade-old Typhoon fighter, a versatile supersonic aircraft now operated by the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Saudi Arabia and Oman. The aircraft entered service in 2003.

“The aircraft was always designed as a multirole aircraft with a focus toward air superiority. When it was initially delivered, the aircraft had excellent air superiority capability and the intent was always to add the multi-role capability as we went along,” Paul Smith, capability development manager, Typhoon operational test pilot, told Military​.com in an interview.

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Belgium Offers RFI for F-16 Replacement

The Belgian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has issued a request for information (RFI) to five foreign government agencies regarding various aircraft that could replace the national air force's ageing F-16 Fighting Falcon fleet.

Several defence ministry officials were quoted by Belga News Agency as saying that the RFI does not commit to a future purchase nor to the selection of a specific aircraft, but "aims to gather information" beyond the open-source data used for initial evaluation.

One of the sources said that the RFI was issued following approval from the outgoing defence minister Pieter De Crem, and does not mention the number of aircraft to be acquired.

Issued to the Joint Program Office (JPO), the Navy Integrated Program Office (NIPO), the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) of the French Ministry of Defence, the Swedish Defence and Security Export Agency (FXM) and the UK Ministry of Defence, the RFI marks the first step in a process that will lead to the acquisition of a new fighter before the retirement of the F-16s starts in 2023.

While JPO is in charge of Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II programme, the NIPO, DGA, FXM and UK MoD look after Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet, Dassault Rafale, Saab JAS-39 Gripen, and Eurofighter Typhoon multi-role combat aircraft, respectively.

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Will Canada Can the F-35 Purchase?

Things are hotting up in Canada over the nation’s F-18 replacement options, with the key question being whether Ottawa will go forward with previous plans to buy the F-35, or enter into a competitive process.

Clearly worried by the prospect of the second option, the pro-F-35 ‘Canadian JSF Industry Group’ published an open letter ahead of the CANSEC show, which took place in Ottawa from 28-29 May. Further delaying a firm commitment to the Lockheed Martin type (US Air Force image below) would be “a costly exercise in terms of personnel, resources and life extension for the existing fleet”, the partner companies warn, while also adding that “current Canadian F-35 contracts and jobs will very soon start going to countries that are today buying the aircraft”.

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Germany to Cancel Order for 37 Eurofighters

Germany’s defence ministry is planning to reduce its order for Eurofighter jets from 180 to 143, according to media reports on Thursday.

National news agency DPA quoted “government sources” as saying that the ministry’s number two, Stephane Beemelmans, had informed parliament’s defence committee about the decision late Wednesday.

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United Arab Emirates Purchase of Eurofighter Typhoon Placed on Hold

The U.K., which has hoped to sell Eurofighter Typhoons to the UAE, has learned that any potential deal is at least on hold.

“The UAE have advised that they have elected not to proceed with these proposals at this time,” says a note to prime contractor BAE Systems’s investors. The U.K. had been negotiating with UAE for the sale of about 60 aircraft, with Prime Minister David Cameron traveling to the Dubai air show in the hopes of lobbying for BAE’s bid to sell the fighter jets.

In addition to the Typhoon, Dassault’s Rafale and Boeing’s F-18 Super Hornet are contending for the UAE’s fighter contract. The news comes one day after Brazil announced it would purchase 36 Saab Gripens.

The move cannot be anything except bad news for Typhoon, which in the last two years has been defeated by the Rafale in India, the F-15 and then the F-35 in Korea, the F-35 in Japan and the Gripen in Switzerland. Typhoon is still a candidate in Qatar, which has increased its requirement to as many as 72 aircraft, and is in the running for a 30-aircraft order in Denmark (against Gripen, Super Hornet and F-35).

Whether the decision indicates that a UAE Rafale buy is close is unclear. According to French press reports, the country’s defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said on Dec. 18 — before the BAE announcement was made public — that there would be “results soon” concerning both a contract for Rafale in India and sales in the Gulf.

Reports that UAE is moving toward requesting the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter may be premature, however, because of political sensitivity and the power of Israel’s lobbyists in Washington. Earlier this year, the UAE was even denied the AGM-158 stealth cruise missile, a much lower-tech system than JSF, and was instead offered the AGM-84H Standoff Land Attack Missile - Expanded Response weapon.