COLOGNE, Germany — The German government will buy 20 more Eurofighter combat aircraft along with 38 already on order, a move intended to bolster the country’s defensive posture while propping up the aerospace industry, in line with Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
He made the announcement Wednesday on the opening day of the Berlin Air Show, where Germany’s major contractors are wanting to display how tens of billions of additional euros for defense, prompted by Russia’s war against Ukraine, had jolted a sleepy industry from which politicians have traditionally sought a healthy distance.
Now, the 20 latest Eurofighters, expected to cost about €2 billion (U.S. $2.2 billion), will help aircraft manufacturer Airbus keep the production line humming “repeatedly,” Scholz said.
He announced additional “perspectives” on future exports of the jet, made together with the U.K., Italy and Spain — a reference that some industry officials took to mean one more sizable tranche is within the offing.
Beside the 4 core nations, the air forces of Austria, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar even have Eurofighters of their fleets. The difficulty of exports to some Middle Eastern nations with questionable human rights records periodically results in political flare-ups here and, by extension, to friction with European co-producers less squeamish about such things.
Germany’s newest line vis-a-vis Saudi Arabia is that the monarchy will likely be allowed to purchase more Eurofighters through Britain as the vendor.
Airbus is currently working on a tranche of 38 Eurofighters of the Quadriga configuration at a value of just about $6 billion. The last of those jets is slated for delivery in 2030.
Meanwhile, Germany is involved in a next-generation aircraft under the banner of the French-German-Spanish Future Combat Air System. Whatever sort of aircraft that effort finally ends up producing is supposed to see the sunshine of day in 2040, though that date appears to be slipping.
To hedge against additional delays, and even program failure, officials in Germany and France are incrementally souping up their legacy fleets — the Eurofighter in Germany and the Rafale in France — with latest capabilities, though leaders have said there isn’t any alternative to FCAS.
Sebastian Sprenger is associate editor for Europe at Defense News, reporting on the state of the defense market within the region, and on U.S.-Europe cooperation and multi-national investments in defense and global security. Previously he served as managing editor for Defense News. He is predicated in Cologne, Germany.