United Kingdom’s audit watchdog has come out with a damning report about the Eurofighter Typhoon, which is one of the six contenders for 126 multi-role combat aircraft replacing the ageing MiGs.
Even as India inches closer to finalise its biggest defence deal, United Kingdom’s audit watchdog has come out with a damning report about the Eurofighter Typhoon, which is one of the six contenders for 126 multi-role combat aircraft replacing the ageing MiGs.
As per National Audit Office (NAO), the single-seat fighter aircraft suffers from problems like spares unavailability and rising costs.
The aircraft will not have full multi-role capability for some years, the report said attributing its problems to absence of a single decision-maker at the top and delayed decision making leading to delayed delivery
Also, the Typhoon is still in the process of acquiring air-to-ground attack capability and also the tranche-3B agreement, between its four partner nations is yet to be signed, required for its full final production.
Spares availability for aircraft support and maintenance, as per NAO, is shared by the four partner nations, independent of each other. But the contracts which are collaborative face problems for the supply of spares and repair of equipment, resulting in the inability to meet target for annual flying hours for the aircraft.
The Typhoon programme, which has four partner nations namely UK, Italy, Spain and Germany, was conceived in the 1980s during the Cold War, and has around 70 Typhoons already in service, protecting the air space around the United Kingdom and the Falkland Islands. The aircraft has already been exported to Saudi Arabia and Austria.
The technical evaluation of all the six competing vendors for the IAF’s 126 MMRCA concluded last year, after which the report is with the ministry of defence for review and a decision is awaited.
To reduce costs, the Royal Airforce (RAF) has cut down its Typhoon squadrons and therefore its flying hours, but the department managing the programme has prioritised pilot training on air defence roles which is currently its key task, the report said.
On the funding, the report said, “The department is confident that it can deliver the full range of support for the reduced number of aircraft within the originally approved figure of £13.1 billion. The number of aircraft being bought has fallen by a third and compared on a like for like basis the unit cost of support per aircraft has risen by approximately a third.
Typhoon’s multi-role capability will be further enhanced by planned upgrades and integration of new weapons to make it swing-role - which means the aircraft will have the flexibility to switch between missions while still in the air and so respond to changing operational demands. The multi-role swing-role is an important requirement in the IAF deal tender.
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