New Typhoon operator may help secure tranche 3

This seemed the best thread to post this news to.

www.defensenews.com...

Looks like the UK Govenment has managed a cut in numbers by not replaceing the 24 Typhoons sold on to Saudi Arabia.

I think the sale of tranche 1 typhoons is an excellent idea. I have read though that tranche 2 typhoons are more likely to be sold in a simiar fashion to the saudi sale.

Selling off old tranche 1 aircraft makes lots more sense though. Oman would be happy since they would be sold at a very cheap price, especially considering that scrappage of tranche 1 airframes when later tranche orders have been delivered is under consideration.

As for partner nations being annoyed, I don't feel there will be an issue, since sale of tranche 1 aircraft to Oman would increase the chances of the RAF being able to make tranche 3b orders. Now I am not sure whether the splitting of tranche 3 means that there are no penalties for dropping out of tranche 3b. If so, then eurofighter would be getting sales that would otherwise be very unlikely from any partner nation (even Germany are now looking hard into whether they can afford the whole 180 purchase).

One shame is that the tranche 1 typhoons have had a good deal of money spent on getting an improved strike capability. It is unlikely that these will see use in afghanistan because priority is given to building up a full air defence force at present. It would be a shame for all of the hard work to go to waste but as a jaguar replacement for the Omanis, this is an excellent solution. I wonder how much of the UOR upgrades could be retained and then maintained in Omani service. I'm referring in particular to the lightening pod integration and Enhanced Paveway 2 bombs. It would make sense to sell EPW2s given that we now have PW4s?

My question is what will happen to the remainder of the tranche 1 Typhoons. If i'm right, there are 56 at present minus 24 sold would leave 32. There would be no need to retain any single seaters so I wonder how many of the tranche 1 planes are dual seaters. Which brings me onto another question: are tranche 2 and 3 planes all single seaters?

Times have changed, but this has now been finalised, FOUR years after the thread began. Tranche 3 was secured long ago and these Omani aircraft will come from that batch, rather than ex-RAF Tranche 1 models and will allow the UK to reduce its own buy.

www.flightglobal.com...

The intention to retire and sell off the RAF's Tranche 1 Typhoons was long since abandoned due to cuts in other areas which caused higher than anticipated utilisation rates for the Tornado fleet, which is running out of airframe hours too early. The last of the RAF's Tranche one Typhoons was returned to service with 11Sqn last month following that fleets upgrade to 'ultimate' standard so they are compatible with newer airframes.

I thought I was reading a current thread, 4 years to buy 24 aircraft, madness.

reply to post by FastJetPilot


It ended up being 20 aircraft, and 8 of those are Hawks. Interestingly, it was originally claimed that it was impossible to upgrade Tranche1 aircraft to be compatible with the newest models.

Yeah I wondered that, I worked on the earlier models years ago and interchaingability (ICY) was always a big thing.

That said lots of the Avionic equipment had T1 and T2 versions of spares because they needed spares on shelves before T2 equipment was ready but they all fitted inside the same or smaller boxes.

So eventually once you have the same equipment and software, it can be upgraded.

Not sure where that came from, can you imagine changing jigs and then having to undergo all new fatigue testing, lightening strike etc etc.