By B.C. Kessner
ROME–Finmeccanica’s Alenia Aeronautica Tuesday said it delivered the first Eurofighter Tranche 2 Typhoon to the Italian Air Force (ItAF), marking an important milestone in the largest European industrial collaboration program in history.
“Delivery of the first Tranche 2 Eurofighter Typhoon represents for the Italian Air Force a further meaningful step forward since it allows it to use new operational capabilities placing it in the vanguard within NATO,” Col. Carlo Uberti, director of the Ufficio Tecnico Territoriale Aeromobili of the Direzione Generale Armamenti Aeronautici (the defense office that tests, accepts and clears delivery for airborne platforms), said. “The Typhoon permits to accomplish always at best and with the best results our Nation’s air defense tasks”.
Maj. Marco Bertoli, deputy-commander of the IX group of the 4th Wing of ItAF, recently flew the aircraft to Grosseto Air Base. The plane–IS020–is the first of a series of 47 enhanced standard fighters that will be delivered to ItAF between now and 2013, Alenia said.
The Eurofighter consortium is comprised of Alenia Aeronautica, Britain’s BAE Systems and European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) units in Germany and Spain (EADS CASA).
The Typhoon program is divided into three Tranches: The first called for 148 production aircraft (29 for Italy) during 2003-1007; Tranche 2 is for 236 aircraft in production from 2007-1012; and Tranche 3 is to include 236 aircraft.
Eurofighter will produce and deliver in the next five years a total of 323 Tranche 2 Typhoons–including 72 aircraft for Saudi Arabia and additional aircraft to partner nations that diverted production slots so that Austria could buy 15 Typhoons in 2007-2009.
The program is managed by the Munich-based consortium and directed on the government side by NETMA, the NATO Eurofighter & Tornado Management Agency set up to meet the air force supply demands of the program’s four partner countries.
Typhoon is considered one of the most advanced defense aircraft available on the market today and the cornerstone of European aerospace and defense technology. Eurofighter contends that the Tranche 2 aircraft, as compared to the previous standard, offers in addition to some structural changes, enhanced software capacity and a substantial growth capability to enable future developments.
For Italy, the program is vital, and huge. About 24,000 people contribute to Eurofighter in this country alone.
Alenia has about a 20 percent share in Typhoon, acts as the final integrator for the 121 Italian aircraft and is responsible for the design and manufacturing of left wing, rear fuselage and the system design of the navigation, armament, utility control, propulsion, secondary power systems for all aircraft.
Finmeccanica companies corner about 36 percent of the industrial participation and play an important role in the ongoing definition, design and development of Typhoon.
Subsidiary Avio is part of the Eurojet Turbo consortium along with Spain’s ITP, Germany’s MTU and Britain’s Rolls-Royce, together responsible for designing and coordinating production of Typhoon’s EJ200 engine.
Selex Galileo, a Finmeccanica subsidiary comprised of Britain’s Selex Sensors and Airborne Systems and Galileo Avionica in Italy, leads other consortia in the development and production of components such as Typhoon’s Captor radar system, defense aid subsystems and the Pirate passive infrared target search system.
“The Tranche 2 is the reference platform for future aircraft development,” Giancarlo Anselmino, senior vice president for Alenia’s defense aircraft business unit, said.
“This important result that rewards the efforts of Alenia, of the other Finmeccanica companies involved and of our consortium partners, represents a fundamental milestone for the program,” he added.
With 707 aircraft under contract for the four partner nations, plus Austria and Saudi Arabia, Italy is an important part of a Eurofighter team that considers itself the market leader in new generation defense aircraft.
Anselmino said that Tranche 2 and 3 aircraft offer better export opportunity than competitors on the international market. Turkey, Romania and Brazil have issued solicitations to Alenia, which leads the consortium in these countries. Typhoon is also under evaluation by Greece, India, Japan (with Alenia as partner of export campaign leader BAE there) and Switzerland.
Tranche 3, however, is still under negotiation and speculation has been abounding in the capitals as to whether the partner nations will stick to original procurement plans.
German Defense Secretary Franz-Josef Jung last week said he had no intention of curbing plans to procure 180 Eurofighters or make reduction in Tranche 3, as some political parties are demanding (Defense Daily, Nov. 17).
Eurofighter’s take on the issue is clear.
“Our position is very firm on this,” Wolfdietrich Hoeveler, Eurofighter’s communications vice president, told Defense Daily on Wednesday. “We were asked to submit a proposal to NETMA for 236 aircraft. We submitted this proposal on 14 December 2007 and delivered an update in February 2008. The proposal remained within the originally agreed costs. The nations are still negotiating among themselves. We are hoping to finalize the process early next year to avoid production gaps.”