First ideas
The history of the newest European fighter Eurofighter EF2000 Typhoon dates back to the late seventies of the last century. By this time, the fleet of fighters available to Western European states consisted mainly of aircraft of the first and second generation. They were rapidly becoming obsolete and could no longer ensure the safety of the airspace of their countries. Therefore, the leading European states, which had their own aviation industry, began work on the creation of aircraft designed to replace outdated equipment.
The first were the British. Their McDonell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and EEC / BAC Lightning fighters were to give way to the new P.106 by the mid-nineties. The German military also planned to decommission its Phantoms and Lockheed F-104 Starfighter over time. It is noteworthy that two projects at once claimed their place in the Air Force: TKF of MBB and ND102, created in Dornier. Finally, the French firm Dassault-Breguet worked on the ACA project. Without dwelling on the technical details of the above aircraft, it is worth noting their similar conceptual features. All of these projects involved the construction of a relatively small light fighter, primarily designed for air superiority and air defense missions. The main weapon of the fighters was to be medium-range guided missiles.
Already in the early eighties, European aircraft manufacturers realized that none of them could create a modern fighter on their own. For this reason, in 1981, the British company BAE, the German MBB and the Italian Aeritalia signed an agreement, according to which it was planned to create a joint project of a promising fighter aircraft for the air forces of the three countries. Already in 1982, at the Farnborough air show, the development companies demonstrated a layout and advertising materials for their new ACA project (Agile Combat Aircraft - "Maneuverable combat aircraft"). It should be noted that the ACA project from BAE, MBB and Aeritalia had nothing to do with the Dassault-Breguet program of the same name.
According to plans at the time, the ACA aircraft was to go into production in 1989 and be built at the same factories as the Panavia Tornado. To reduce the cost of the development and construction of new fighters, it was proposed to use the developments under the Tornado project, including the engine and some electronic systems. Nevertheless, the ACA remained on paper. The reason for this was the transition of the joint project to a completely different level.
At the very end of 1983, the command of the air forces of Great Britain, Spain, Italy, France and the Federal Republic of Germany not only became interested in the new project, but also initiated new work in this direction. Air Force commanders have formed uniform requirements for the FEFA (Future European Fighter Aircraft) aircraft. A little later, the first letter F was removed from the designation of the program. Several firms from different countries were involved in the creation of a new fighter. Thus, Britain was represented in the project by BAe, Germany was represented by DASA, and France by Dassault-Breguet. Participants from Spain and Italy are CASA and Alenia respectively.
The initial requirements for the EFA fighter were simple and straightforward: to intercept enemy aircraft with the ability to strike at ground targets. In addition, high maneuverability was required due to low wing loading and good thrust-to-weight ratio. Despite the simplicity of the basic requirements, the formation of the appearance of a promising fighter took a lot of time. Work in this direction lasted from the summer of 1984 to the fall of 1986.
The time spent paid for itself completely. In September 1986, the aircraft manufacturers involved in the EFA project presented their views to customers regarding the exact appearance of the fighter. It is worth noting that the look was so successful that it did not undergo major changes in the future, and production fighters almost completely correspond to it, with the exception of some details. In 1986, another significant event for the project took place. At the insistence of the customers, the consortium Eurofighter GmBH was formed, the purpose of which was the overall coordination of the project. In addition, in the same year, an organization called Eurojet began its existence. Within the framework of this consortium, Rolls-Royce (Britain), MTU (Germany), Sener (Spain) and Fiat (Italy) united their forces. The goal of Eurojet was to develop a promising turbojet engine for the EFA aircraft.
How should an airplane be?
The specific appearance of the EFA fighter was as follows. Twin-engine fighter, made according to the "duck" scheme with all-moving forward horizontal tail. The control system is fly-by-wire, thanks to which the aircraft could be made statically unstable. Also, as a result of research and analysis, a ventral air intake of a characteristic shape was selected. With good aerodynamic characteristics, it also provided a lower radar signature in comparison with intakes of a different shape. The use of an unstable aerodynamic layout and a fly-by-wire control system (EDSU) gave a third more lift and a third less drag.
The combat capabilities of the aircraft were supposed to be provided with a large stock of guided air-to-air missiles of several types, a built-in cannon (at the request of the customer), limited use of stealth technologies, as well as the use of a special DASS system (Defense Aids Sub System), which was supposed to be created to protect the fighter from the air defense of a potential enemy. It is worth noting that in the early stages of the project, the DASS complex was considered one of the most important elements of onboard equipment. Its priority was due to the peculiarities of a hypothetical European theater of military operations, saturated with anti-aircraft missile and cannon systems.
During the work on the formation of the image of EFA, the countries participating in the project, based on general requirements, formed their approximate plans for the number of aircraft needed. Shares of financial participation in the development were divided in proportion to these plans. However, soon the scope of participation in the project had to be revised. France withdrew from the program in 1985. The military of this country, and with them the company Dassault-Breguet, began to insist on reducing the maximum take-off weight of the fighter, citing their desire to get not only a "land", but also a carrier-based fighter. At the stage of work, when the French military made a proposal, the main parameters of the aircraft had already been agreed and no one even approved the very possibility of changing them. As a result, Dassault-Breguet left the consortium and started developing its own Rafale project.
By this time, the plans of the other states looked like this: Germany and Great Britain were going to build 250 EFA fighters each, Italy - 200 and Spain - 100. Thus, Germany and Britain fell on a third of the total cost of developing the aircraft, and Italy and Spain - 21 and 13 percent, respectively. It was these figures that were included in the program at the time when the Eurofighter consortium was created.
Back in 1983, the British company BAe, with the help of foreign firms, began work on a technology demonstrator aircraft, on which it was planned to work out the main technical solutions. It is noteworthy that the EAP (Experimental Aircraft Program) subsidiary project was three-quarters English. The participation of Germany and Italy in it was only 10-15 percent. In 1985, construction of an experimental aircraft began, and a year later it took off for the first time. Despite the fact that the EAP was created before the end of the development of the appearance of the EFA aircraft, both aircraft turned out to be quite similar to each other.
EAP, like the fighter of the main project EFA, was built according to the "canard" with the front horizontal tail. The statically unstable aircraft was equipped with a fly-by-wire control system, and composite materials and carbon plastics were widely used in the design. All the main elements of the dashboard have given way to several multifunctional monitors based on cathode ray tubes. Tests of the EAP aircraft made it possible to confirm the correctness or erroneousness of certain technical solutions. Based on the results of test flights of the demonstrator aircraft, the appearance of the EFA fighter was slightly adjusted.
During the second half of the eighties, while the design work on the EFA project was going on, several economic events took place. Several European countries have indicated a desire to acquire new EFA fighters. The total volume of orders from Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway could reach at least several dozen units, and in the future even approach the mark of 150-200 aircraft. However, at this time, the military-political situation in Europe began to change little by little. As a result, almost all negotiations on the supply of promising fighters to third countries remained at the stage of consultations regarding the quantity and suitable price.
While other European states were pondering the need to purchase new fighters, in 1988 the members of the Eurofighter consortium signed a contract for the technical design of a new aircraft, as well as for the construction and testing of an experimental series. By this time, the technical appearance of the fighter was finalized taking into account the information collected during the tests of the EAP demonstrator. In particular, it was thanks to the tests of the demonstrator aircraft that it was possible to establish that the delta wing without variable sweep along the leading edge would be the most convenient and effective. I also had to choose a different wing profile and significantly alter the cockpit. As a result of the changes in the latter, the view became much better than on most fighters of that time.
Politics and finance
As soon as the full-fledged design work on the EFA project began, it could stop due to the constant change in the political situation. The collapse of the Warsaw Pact Organization, the unification of the two Germanies, and then the collapse of the Soviet Union led to the fact that most European states decided to save on military spending in the absence of any serious threats. The Eurofighter consortium nearly fell victim to these savings.
The most striking example of the political and economic processes around the EFA was the situation in the united Germany. The FRG Air Force inherited a number of new Soviet MiG-29 fighters from the armed forces of the GDR. Because of this, in near-aviation circles, the opinion began to spread according to which Germany should have withdrawn from the Eurofighter project and purchased a certain number of Soviet / Russian aircraft. At the same time, the United States launched a vigorous activity, trying to promote its aviation technology to the European market. We should pay tribute to the leadership of the consortium, which was able to defend the need to continue working on their own project.
The result of the work of the Eurofighter management was a memorandum signed in December 1992. This document clearly and clearly stated the timing of the project's readiness. So, the first EFA fighters were supposed to enter service with the British Air Force in 2000. The first aircraft for Germany were planned to be built by 2002. The end of the service life of fighters was attributed to the mid-thirties of the XXI century. In addition, the memorandum introduced a new name for the project: EF2000.
And yet, the countries participating in the project have revised their military budgets. Due to the financial capabilities of the main customers, the Eurofighter participants had to revise the project in order to reduce the cost of the entire program and reduce the cost of an individual aircraft. In the course of this revision, the airframe of the aircraft remained the same, but the main improvements concerned engines and equipment. Slightly relaxed requirements for flight characteristics, and also changed the quantitative and qualitative composition of onboard avionics. So, they lowered the requirements for a promising radar station and a number of other systems, and also abandoned an optical location station and an electromagnetic pulse protection system. Such "losses" were considered acceptable for simultaneously reducing the cost of the aircraft and maintaining its combat capability for the foreseeable future, given the changing nature of the war.
At the beginning of 1993, plans for the purchase of new EF2000 aircraft were once again adjusted. Britain still needed 250 fighters, but other countries had to rethink their plans. This resulted in the following figures: 140 aircraft for Germany, 130 for Italy and less than 90 for Spain. It is worth noting that by this time the countries and companies that were part of the consortium were already preparing for the start of serial production of promising aircraft. It was planned that the manufacture of various components and assemblies would be distributed among the companies participating in the program, and the final assembly would begin on four production lines, one in each country that ordered the fighters. The production of individual airframe units was distributed as follows: BAe was supposed to assemble the nose of the fuselage with a forward horizontal tail, the German companies MBB and Dornier - the central part of the fuselage and the keel. The wing assembly, in turn, was entrusted to three firms at once: Aeritalia, BAe and CASA.
Prototypes
However, the plans for the distribution of the production of units until a certain time remained only plans, since first it was necessary to build and test several prototype aircraft. The first of them, designated DA1 (Development Aircraft), took off in the spring of 1994 in Germany. A month and a half later, a second prototype fighter, the DA2, took off from the British airfield. The DA4 and DA5 aircraft were built in the UK and Germany, respectively, Italy was responsible for assembling and testing the third and seventh prototypes, while Spain built only one aircraft, the DA6. The construction and testing of all seven fighters took several years, which is why at first all tests were carried out on only two or three aircraft. At the same time, thanks to this approach, it was possible to work out all the aircraft systems and make the necessary adjustments to the design of the following prototypes. In addition, each subsequent prototype received new systems that were not yet ready during the construction of the previous one. During the tests of the DA series, only one aircraft was lost - the DA6. In November 2002, it crashed due to the failure of both engines. DA1 continued the testing program of the sixth prototype after the corresponding modifications.
Particularly noteworthy is the third flight prototype. For the first time in the experimental line, it was equipped with standard Eurojet EJ200 engines and a four-channel fly-by-wire control system. Despite the absence of a radar station and a number of other equipment, the DA3 prototype was able to show all its flight capabilities. The first flight of the third prototype took place about a year after the DA1 took off in Germany. In addition to seven prototypes, five demonstration aircraft (EAP) and flying laboratories of various models took part in the test program for individual units and the entire Eurofighter as a whole. Flying labs have saved more than £ 800 million and cut the EF2000 by about a year, according to the companies involved in the development of the systems.
Subsequently, the Eurofighter consortium created the IPA (Instrumented Production Aircraft) line of aircraft. Seven of these fighters were serial EF2000 aircraft, equipped with a set of instrumentation and a modified composition of onboard equipment. The IPA series, like the DA, was built in all four countries. The main difference between the new test series and the previous one was its purpose. IPA aircraft were used to test modernization programs, and also served as prototypes for new series of serial fighters.
Mass production
The final contract for the production of EF2000 fighters was signed in January 1998. At the same time, the name Typhoon ("Typhoon") appeared, which, however, was then applied only to British fighters. According to the official document on the construction of production aircraft, the British Air Force wanted to receive 232 new fighters, the German military ordered 180 aircraft, the Italian Ministry of Defense was ready to buy 121 fighters, and Spain - only 87. The companies' shares in the production of the ordered fighters were determined as follows: 37, 5 % of operations were assigned to BAe; German companies, united under the leadership of DASA, were responsible for 29% of the work; 19.5% of the production was entrusted to Aeritalia, and the remaining 14% to the Spanish CASA.
An interesting approach to the construction of new fighters. Since the countries could not afford to purchase all the aircraft at once, and the very first EF2000s had to be outdated by the time the latter were delivered, the customers and the Eurofighter consortium decided to build the aircraft in relatively small batches, which are part of the so-called. trenches. With such a technique for assembling and supplying fighters, it became possible to constantly improve the design and equipment without negatively affecting the course of production.
As part of the first tranche, 148 aircraft of three modifications were built: Block 1, Block 2 and Block 5. They differed from each other in the composition of the target equipment and, as a result, in their combat capabilities. The first serial fighter was assembled in Germany and took off for the first time on February 13, 2003. Literally the next day, Italian and English planes took off for the first time with a difference of several hours. On February 17, the first aircraft assembled in Spain made its maiden flight. The most advanced aircraft of the first tranche, as is clear, was the EF2000 Block 5, capable of fighting air and ground targets. Over time, all the aircraft of the first tranche were converted to this state. During the delivery of the first tranche aircraft, Great Britain received 53 fighters, Germany - 33, Italy and Spain 28 and 19, respectively. In addition, one and a half dozen "Eurofighters" went to serve in the Austrian Air Force. This country became the first operator of the new fighter not participating in its development.
The 251 aircraft of the second tranche can be divided into four series: Block 8, Block 10, Block 15 and Block 20. The first of them received a new on-board computer and some new equipment. Further improvements concerned the possibility of using new weapons of the "air-to-air" and "air-to-ground" classes. Deliveries of Tranche 2 aircraft began in 2008. In the near future Germany will acquire 79 planes of the second tranche, Britain will buy 67, Italy will acquire 47, and Spain - 34 fighters. In addition, 24 aircraft of the second tranche were ordered by Saudi Arabia.
Just a year after the start of deliveries of the second tranche aircraft, the Eurofighter consortium signed a contract for the construction of Tranche 3A series fighters. A total of 172 such aircraft will be built. 40 will go to the UK, 31 to Germany, 21 to Italy and 20 to Spain. In addition, several dozen EF2000s are to become the property of the Arab states. So, Saudi Arabia intends to acquire 48 more aircraft, and Oman is ready to acquire 12.
The price of the future
Tranche 3A aircraft will be the most expensive Eurofighter modifications. According to reports, one such fighter is worth about 90 million euros. For comparison, the aircraft of the previous batches cost customers no more than 70-75 million each. If we add the development costs to the cost of the aircraft, then each British Typhoon 3A tranche costs about 150 million euros. In general, the economic part of the EFA / EF2000 project is not much different from the financial processes around other similar programs. The costs have steadily increased and caused a corresponding reaction in the ruling circles of the countries involved in the project.
An example of the growth is the numbers cited by British officials. At the end of the eighties, London expected to spend no more than seven billion pounds on new aircraft. By the beginning of the nineties, this figure had almost doubled - to 13 billion, no more than three and a half of which was planned to be spent on research and development work, and then to start purchasing finished aircraft at a price of about 30 million per unit. In 1997, the British announced a new figure: the total British spending on the entire program, including the cost of the necessary aircraft, reached 17 billion pounds. By the beginning of the service of the first Typhoons in the first half of the 2000s, the program was already worth 20 billion. Finally, in 2011, the British military department published information according to which the development, procurement and operation of the EF2000 will cost a total of 35-37 billion pounds.
In December 2010, the 250th EF2000 fighter was delivered to the customer. In the spring of 2011, the British Typhoons took part in their first combat operation. In mid-March, ten aircraft flew to an Italian airfield, from where they flew to patrol Libyan airspace and strike at loyalist troops. It should be admitted that the combat experience of British aircraft cannot be called complete due to the lack of modern air defense systems in the Libyan armed forces. However, the EF2000 were no longer involved in armed conflicts, and therefore there is insufficient information to determine their combat potential.
Nevertheless, all countries that have already bought or have just ordered Eurofighter EF2000 fighters do not even think to give them up. As previously planned, these aircraft will serve until at least the mid-thirties. In addition, from time to time there are rumors that over the next few years, development of a new modification of the EF2000 will begin, corresponding to the requirements for the fifth generation of fighters. However, this information has not yet received official confirmation. The countries of the Eurofighter consortium are busy with the construction of the second tranche aircraft and preparation for the production of Tranche 3A fighters. Therefore, for the next few years, the EF2000 will remain the newest European fighter to emerge as a result of full-fledged international cooperation.
