German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the purchase of 20 additional Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets. Speaking at the opening of the ILA in Berlin, Chancellor Scholz said he was strongly committed to maintaining and expanding arms production capacity. The news underlines Germany’s commitment to NATO in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Eurofighter Typhoon is a twin-engine, canard-delta wing, multirole fighter, which is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo. The companies in the Eurofighter programme — Airbus, BAE Systems, Leonardo — manage a supply chain employing more than 100,000 skilled people, enriching the technology capabilities of the whole European region.
Chancellor Scholz said: “We will order 20 more Eurofighters before the end of this legislative session (scheduled for autumn 2025) — in addition to the 38 aircraft currently in the pipeline. the order would give certainty to Airbus and its suppliers”
Eurofighter CEO Giancarlo Mezzanatto said: “Today’s announcement from the German government is great news for the Eurofighter programme and our industry partners. It underlines Germany’s long-term commitment to the Eurofighter. Eurofighter Typhoon will be the backbone of Europe’s defence for decades to come.”
The Eurofighter Typhoon is a European multinational twin-engine, supersonic, canard delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter and is manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo that conducts the majority of the project through a joint holding company, Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH. The NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency, representing the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain, manages the project and is the prime customer. The Eurofighter Typhoon is a highly agile aircraft, designed to be an effective dogfighter in combat. Later production aircraft have been increasingly better equipped to undertake air-to-surface strike missions and to be compatible with an increasing number of different armaments and equipment, including Storm Shadow, Brimstone and Marte ER missiles.
On 4 August 2003, the German Air Force accepted its first series production Eurofighter (30+03) starting the replacement process of the Mikoyan MiG-29s inherited from the East German Air Force. The first Luftwaffe Wing to accept the Eurofighter was Jagdgeschwader 73 “Steinhoff” on 30 April 2004 at Rostock–Laage Airport. The Luftwaffe assigned their Eurofighters to QRA on 3 June 2008, taking over from the F-4F Phantom II. On 28 October 2014, while deployed to Ämari Air Base in Estonia as part of the NATO Baltic Air Policing mission, German Eurofighters scrambled and intercepted seven Russian Air Force aircraft over the Baltic Sea. The Luftwaffe once again provided Baltic Air Policing at Ämari Air Base between 31 August 2020 and April 2021, having taken over from Dassault Mirage 2000-5Fs of the French Air and Space Force.
