German Parliament Approves $6.3 Billion Contract For New Eurofighter Jets

Germany’s parliament has approved a major €5.4 billion ($6.35 billion) contract to purchase heavily modernised Tranche 3 variants of the Eurofighter Typhoon fourth generation combat jet, which will allow it to phase its ageing Cold War era Tornado swept wing fighters out of service. The new jets will reportedly also replace older Tranche 1 Eurofighters in service. Air Force Inspector General Ingo Gerhartz stated this "important decision" was something that will strengthen the air force's combat capabilities, significantly, as “by replacing Tranche 1, which is obsolete and susceptible to repairs, we are increasing the operational readiness of the Eurofighter fleet and thus our reliability in the [NATO] alliance.” The Tranche 4 variant of the Eurofighter notably has a number of advantages over its predecessors, including being the first to integrate an AESA radar - the Captor-E Mk1. These are not only more powerful than passive electronically scanned array (PESA) radars which the German fleet currently still relies on entirely, making the jets better able to guide long range missile types such as new Meteor air to air missiles, but they are also considerably more difficult to jam providing better reliability. Other upgrades largely pertain to the Eurofighter’s avionics and electronic warfare systems. 

The German Defence Ministry plans in the long term to purchase at least 93 new Eurofighter jets, and has resisted calls from within to instead acquire more sophisticated F-35A fighters from the United States as Britain, Italy, Belgium, Poland and a number of other European states have decided to do. This decision was largely motivated by the need to develop the country’s domestic defence sector and ensure an independent military capability from the United States. The F-35’s advantages over the Eurofghter largely pertain to its superior stealth capabilities, electronic warfare systems and network centric warfare capabilities, although the Eurofghter boasts a superior flight performance and in German service has access to Taurus cruise missiles which outperform any missiles the F-35 its currently compatible with. Germany has had serious issues with combat readiness for its Eurofghters, however, an at times over 95% of the fleet has been unavailable for combat. It remains to be seen whether this will improve once the Tornado jets are retired and the entire German Air Force can effectively rely on just a single type of fighter airframe.