Spain To Buy More Eurofighter Typhoons To Replace Aging F/A-18 Hornet Fighter Jets
After Germany, now Spain is planning to increase its Eurofighter fleet.
Spain is the latest European country to move to buy more Eurofighter Typhoon multirole fighter jets to bolster its air force. The manufacturer announced today that it is now in negotiations with the Spanish government for the replacement of 20 Spanish Air Force EF-18 Hornets under what is called Project Halcón, or Project Hawk.
The company says it has submitted its offer to the Spanish government and is now in talks “to mature the proposal.” It expects to sign a contract for the 20 new Typhoons in 2021.
To supersede these older Hornets, the Eurofighter consortium is offering 20 new Typhoons that will be completed to the “latest standard,” including the Captor-E Mk 1 active electronically- scanned array (AESA) radar, which you can read more about here.
The Spanish Air Force has already received all 73 Typhoons from its initial order, which comprised 59 single-seaters and 14 twin-seaters. Three of these have been lost in accidents, but the remaining 70 are all still active, forming a fast-jet fleet alongside U.S.-supplied EF-18 Hornet multirole fighters.
Spain may yet buy even more new Typhoons as it looks to replace the entire EF-18 fleet between 2025 and 2030, although exactly how many extra Eurofighters may be required is unclear and the future of this effort will likely be influenced by the progress made on the European Future Combat Air System (FCAS), which involves France, Germany, and Spain. The FCAS initiative plans to field a sixth-generation stealthy manned fighter and accompanying unmanned platforms by 2040.
One possibility that’s been suggested is to replace the remaining Hornets by purchasing three batches of 20 Typhoons, to spread the cost, which will be particularly important as the Spanish economy takes a hit from the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Whatever happens, it seems Spain has chosen to buy more Typhoons as the next step in modernizing its air force. As such, the country appears to be following a similar path taken by Germany, which has also confirmed its intent to purchase 93 additional Tranche 4 Eurofighters. The German buy will include 38 jets as under the Quadriga program to replace the Luftwaffe’s early Tranche 1 aircraft, plus another 55 to succeed a portion of the Tornado combat jet fleet, 85 examples of which are earmarked for replacement. The German Ministry of Defense hopes to launch the procurement of the new Typhoons in 2025.
