Eurofighter is well into studies that not only map out the immediate future for Typhoon, but also keep it at the forefront of air warfare until 2050 and beyond.
EUROFIGHTER TYPHOON // FUTURE FOCUS
THE EUROPEAN PARTNER companies — working in tandem with Eurofighter — see the Typhoon as a bridge to a next-generation European Future Combat Air System (FCAS). While the current Phase 3 Enhancement project takes the Typhoon into the next decade, the route to 2030 and beyond is already becoming clear. This not only taps into emerging requirements of existing customers, but also opens the door to potential additional sales.
Eurofighter says it is working with the partner nations to finalize a Phase 4 Enhancement (P4E) plan as well as scoping a follow-on P5E. ‘We are looking at P4E and we have the requirements from the partner nations,’ says Raffael Klaschka of Eurofighter GmbH. While Klaschka remains tight-lipped on specifics, a number of capabilities would seem an obvious fit here — the E-Scan radar, Striker II digital day/night helmet, conformal fuel tanks, MBDA’s SPEAR 3 glide weapon, the new Litening V laser designator pod, satellite communications and the dual-carriage common weapons launcher.
Klaschka sa…
