Austria to ditch the Euro Fighter

Austria is to phase out its fleet of 15 Tranche 1 Eurofighter Typhoons from 2020, amid a deepening row with the four-nation consortium over the cost and capability of its aircraft.

Vienna in February began legal proceedings against Airbus Defence & Space and Eurofighter over alleged fraud and deception related to its near €2 billion ($2.28 billion) acquisition of the Typhoons in 2003. Airbus and the consortium deny the accusations.

But its proposed exit from Eurofighter operations from the end of the decade reveals the depth of Vienna’s dissatisfaction with the Typhoon.

www.flightglobal.com...

The actual issue is that they can't really afford a modern supersonic fighter aircraft. And yeah, those 15 Efs in the bare bones configuration have been a bad deal.

They might be looking to buy second hand. One article mentions Gripens or even F-16s.

On a tangent.....so Austria needs super fighter jet airplanes.......ya know, I'm Air Force from the Vietnam Era.....but it hits me reading this thread......Flagg......

In this friggin world everyone needs a friggin armed Air Force and the money for fuel and my heavens the maintenance......I don't want a world like that........

What did we modern mankind become........dang

Austria is a very wealthy country per capita, but with only a bit over 8 million people, no mineral/resources wealth and a financial services sector linked to a patchy Eastern Europe, it really struggles to field quality and quantity in terms of weapons systems. At least they don't have to spend for a navy...

originally posted by: moebius
The actual issue is that they can't really afford a modern supersonic fighter aircraft. And yeah, those 15 Efs in the bare bones configuration have been a bad deal.

They might be looking to buy second hand. One article mentions Gripens or even F-16s.

may i correct you?
it's not that they can't afford it, but they don't NEED it.

austria is a neutral country. they don't need one of the best fighter jets to guard their airspace. simply overpowerd for what they looked for.

that's like all of the police driving around in ferraris.

austria in my opinion was forced to take the eurofighters because they are part of the european union.

originally posted by: Borys
Austria is a very wealthy country per capita, but with only a bit over 8 million people,

Also, Austria is not a member of NATO but its geographical position (like Switzerland) means that it is pretty well protected by NATO. On that basis, why bother having any military at all. They can be fat and rich, and secure.

If they procured Typhoon in 2003 and are retiring the planes in 2020, then they had a pretty good run in them before they decided they were no good. Sounds like the Austrians are just good at complaining after making a poor decision - it's like buying an expensive car and taking it back after you've clocked 100,000 miles to demand your money back because you cannot afford the next service.

originally posted by: anticitizen

originally posted by: moebius
The actual issue is that they can't really afford a modern supersonic fighter aircraft. And yeah, those 15 Efs in the bare bones configuration have been a bad deal.

They might be looking to buy second hand. One article mentions Gripens or even F-16s.

may i correct you?
it's not that they can't afford it, but they don't NEED it.

austria is a neutral country. they don't need one of the best fighter jets to guard their airspace. simply overpowerd for what they looked for.

that's like all of the police driving around in ferraris.

austria in my opinion was forced to take the eurofighters because they are part of the european union.

Belgium was neutral in WW2 as well. Didn't help them.

a reply to: anzha

Shame they wasted so much on the EF program. The Tranche 1 jets were just not meant to be an enduring air frame and they've already been mothballed by most the countries that bought them as they were replaced with more capable tranches. Would be a good country for the Gripen. F-16 will work as well and if the Indians buy them they could get cheap.

The difference between Switzerland and Austria is that the Swiss have maintained a credible if small fighter force and are back to actively looking for replacements. The Austrians have tended to let other countries shoulder the burden by being a flag of neutral convenience. Just because you dont bother to spend much on defence doesn't mean the problem goes away. That has been the general argument in Washington in reference to a lot of NATO particularly post GW1, and to an extent its true. The problem is Austria wants to be seen as joining in with combat air patrols but hasn't wanted to spend the money to make it viable long term. You cant have your cake and eat it too. And this current dummy spit smells of that same attitude. Even their replacement plans see 15 Typhoons and 15 SAAB 105's replaced with half the amount of airframes. So all they are looking at doing is repeating the process of having a small orphan force that wont be particularly effective. What they need to do is replace like for like quantities as even 30 airframes can only go so far. The smart thing would be to purchase Gripens built to the same standard as the Swedish Air Force's and block buy with them. It might be cheaper to look at buying either new or refurbished C/D's and keep them up to date with Sweden with incremental upgrades. You could go high low with a 15 squadron purchase of C/D and another of E/F. However if Austria is so concerned about block obsolescence and CPFH then 30 NG's upgraded over time will be an effective and cheap fighter force. If added to the Swedish orders it would also see unit costs drop a few percent as well. And the running costs of even an NG would kill just about any other alternative on the market including its current Typhoon force.