Spain Announces Plans For New Eurofighters to Replace Ageing American F-18 Hornet Jets

Spain has officially entered negotiations to acquire an additional batch of Eurofighter ‘4+ generation’ medium weight fighter jets, which will replace 20 of its F-18A Hornets currently in service. The Eurofighter saw its first flight in 1994, and was jointly developed by Spain, Italy, Britain and Germany with Spain being the smallest partner in the project. A deal for the sale of 20 Eurofighters is expected in 2021, with the jets to be completed to the “latest standard” including integration of the new Captor-E Mk 1 AESA radar. Although AESA radars have been in use on active fighter jets since 2002, when the F-2 fighter first joined the Japanese Air Force, and have been used by the American and Chinese militaries since 2005 and 2013 respectively, the first AESA radar equipped Eurofighters have yet to enter service. Kuwait is set to receive the very first Eurofighters equipped with the Captor-E Mk1, followed by Germany, with Spain expected to be the third client if the deal goes through. AESA radars are not only more powerful than passive electronically scanned array (PESA) radars which the vast majority fighters in Europe currently still rely on, allowing jets to better guide long range munition types such as new Meteor air to air missiles, but they are also considerably more difficult to jam providing better reliability. New Eurofighters also benefit from improved avionics and electronic warfare systems which improve their performances considerably. 

The Spanish Air Force is currently comprised of seven frontline fighter squadrons and four training squadrons, between them including three of Eurofighters, six of Hornets and two of ageing pre-Vietnam War era F-5B jets. A total of 68 Eurofighters, 84 Hornets and 19 F-5s are currently in service, giving Spain some of the oldest operational combat aircraft in Western Europe. The twenty oldest F-18 jets which Spain its currently planning to replace began service in the U.S. Military, but were sold on second hand and are today primarily used for air defence. Some unverified reports indicate that the aircraft were acquired urgently to respond to the challenge posed by Algeria’s MiG-25 Foxbat interceptors, which had the range needed to operate over much of Spanish territory and were nearly impossible to shoot down for existing jets in the Spanish fleet. Algeria is expected to retire its heavily enhanced Foxbats by 2027 for replacement with Su-57 next generation fighters, which deploy AESA radars considerably larger than those on the Eurofighters. Spain’s decision to purchase more Eurofighters will provide a much needed boon to the European fighter program, which other than the sale of a single unit of 15 jets to Austria in 2003 has seen no exports outside the Persian Gulf Region forcing it to rely heavily on orders from the countries which developed it.