The much-maligned Eurofighter program must lower costs and prove
that it can compete effectively against U.S. platforms, to regain
credibility in the world markets, experts said. Eurofighter officials
noted they are optimistic about prospects of new foreign sales,
but nevertheless acknowledge that the competition is tougher than
ever.
The Eurofighter funding partners—Britain, Germany, Italy
and Spain—signed an agreement in 1998, committing themselves
to buying 620 aircraft. The development cost for the airplane was
estimated at $10 billion. In order to make it more marketable outside
Europe, the fighter jet was also named the Typhoon.
The Eurofighter headquarters is in Munich. The program is owned
and managed by a consortium of European firms—BAE Systems,
of the United Kingdom; Alenia Aerospazio, of Italy; EADS, of Germany
and EADS Spain (formerly CASA).
The Eurofighter’s largest customer, the U.K. Royal Air Force,
is slated to deploy its first Eurofighter squadron in 2005. The
United Kingdom’s original order was for 232 airplanes, with
options for 65 more.
But observers now are questioning whether the four main partners
will stick to their initial commitments, given the cost overruns
and delays experienced in the program. Speculation among industry
circles is that the U.K. order will be downsized to 150 aircraft.
Further, both the U.K. and the Italian defense ministries have
made significant investments in the U.S. Joint Strike Fighter program.
Even though both nations claim that their participation in JSF will
not undercut their commitment to Eurofighter, industry experts don’t
seem so sure.
The Eurofighter program is also colliding with other huge U.K.
procurement projects planned for the next decade, such as the A400M
transport aircraft, two aircraft carriers and the new Type 45 destroyers.
The British press reported that the U.K. Ministry of Defence is
withholding part of its payments for the Eurofighter until ongoing
problems are rectified. However, the MOD said that, despite the
delay, the program is not in “deep trouble.”
The Eurofighter marketing team has set an ambitious goal of exporting
500 aircraft by 2022.
That goal is unlikely to materialize, said Bill Dane, an aerospace
industry analyst at Forecast International DMS, a business intelligence
research firm.
Making things tough for Eurofighter is the fact that most countries
do not need, or have the money to buy expensive fighter jets. Some
see the JSF as a better deal. The Pentagon, additionally, continues
to lobby for countries to keep their F-16 fighters until the Joint
Strike Fighter (called the F-35) enters service in 2008.
Eurofighter officials said they welcome the competition. The F-35
is only a prototype, whereas the Eurofighter already is in full-rate
production, Erwin Obermeier, senior vice president for programs
at EADS, told National Defense.
“It is hard for us, because there are not many data released
with JSF,” he said. “I am not ready to blame somebody
as a country or other company when I don’t know the details
for it.”
Because the Typhoon is a mature aircraft, he noted, “we offer
the spare parts, pilot and maintenance training, so there is a total
system that we are going to offer.”
But the reality is that, to make sales, the Eurofighter team has
to be able to offer economic incentives, or offsets, to the buying
countries. Austria is a case in point. Currently, Austria is the
only country outside the Eurofighter consortium that has inked a
deal for the fighter jet. Austria decided to buy 24 aircraft for
$1.76 billion. However, that decision comes with a 200 percent offset,
which basically means that Eurofighter will generate 200 percent
of the contract’s value in business for the Austrian industry.
“There are other nations that would require less, but different
work,” said Obermeier. “Austria is on the very high
side.” In Austria, he explained, the offsets would involve
industrial work in composites, communication technology, traffic-management
technology and machinery.
“It is all a part of negotiation,” he said. “What
does the country where we sell the Eurofighter really want?”
Western countries usually seek to strike a balance between broadening
their technological base and giving small to medium-sized businesses
and universities a chance to expand their skills, he explained.
Offset associated with defense sales does not always involve aerospace
technology, Obermeier noted. “It could be automotive, even
forestry.”
According to Dane, “A lot of these deals are clinched by
the offset programs, and sometimes those are just as important as
the program.”
To its credit, Eurofighter already has created 30,000 jobs and
is projected to create as many as 120,000 in the coming years, sources
said.
“What Eurofighter has to do is to get the cost down and give
the program greater credibility,” said Dane. “They have
to get out there and beat the bushes against the F-16, [Sweden’s]
Gripen and [France’s] Rafale.”
The unit price for Eurofighter is between $45-50 million, depending
on the features, said Andy Wilson, director of new business for
the Eurofighter Typhoon.
Mission Focus
The Eurofighter is a single-seat, twin-engine, combat aircraft,
which will be used in air-to-air, air-to-ground and tactical reconnaissance
roles. Stealth technology was incorporated throughout the aircraft’s
basic design.
“We have 11 weapons stations on the aircraft, and you can
carry any mix, according to specified weapons,” said Obermeier.
“Right now, we have focused first to develop the software
for air-to-air missiles, and the second step is to develop the software
for air-to-ground missions.”
However, the Eurofighter’s focus on the air-to-air mission
has drawn criticism, given the post-Cold War emphasis worldwide
on air-to-ground capabilities.
Obermeier emphasized that the Typhoon would be a multi-mission
jet, capable of swing roles. “Let’s say if a pilot gets
the request to change from an air-to-air mission to an air-to-ground
mission, he can switch on the spot, because the software is designed
to do that. It is inherent in the aircraft,” said Obermeier.
“The whole philosophy for the cockpit is to reduce pilot
workload for the single-seat, swing-role weapons system,”
said Archie Neill, a BAE Systems test pilot for the RAF. “The
way that the cockpit deals with the information deluge and presents
it to the pilot is such that everything is very easy to understand.
That is what I call at-a-glance awareness—the pilot looks
at the display and knows exactly what he is seeing.”
A voice-command feature means that “a lot of the functions
are [executed], simply by talking into the cockpit,” Neill
said.
Nagging Nora—as the pilots have facetiously named the voice
in the cockpit—answers questions, such as the level of the
fuel content. “Nagging Nora is a very effective way of passing
on the information to the pilot,” Neill said. “She’s
got a very strong English accent that is very good. There is also
a male voice for easy things like non-flight safety critical aspects,
but Nagging Nora kicks in when there is something really important.”
The BAE Systems helmet-mounted symbology and heads-up display show
the flight reference data, weapon aiming and cueing data. Among
the sensors is a forward-looking infrared.
“The radar and FLIR are capable of detecting targets outside
of 100 miles, depending on the size of the target,” said Neill.
“It is well outside the visual range.”
The aircraft is equipped with a multi-mode X-band pulse Doppler
radar, which has three processing channels. The third channel is
used for jammer classification.
The Typhoon has an internally mounted 27-mm Mauser gun and 13 hard
points for weapon carriage. Four are under each wing and five under
the fuselage. An armament control system manages the weapons selection
and firing and monitors weapon status.
For air-to-air combat, the Typhoon has four beyond-visual-range
air-to-air missiles (BVRAAM) and two short-range air-to-air missiles
(ASRAAM). The plane also can carry a mix of up to 10 medium-and
short-range missiles.
For air-to-surface missions, the Eurofighter can carry Brimstone
and DWS 37 anti-armor weapons—three under each wing and one
under the center fuselage, as well as laser-guided weapons.
The Typhoon is constructed of carbon-fiber composites, glass-reinforced
plastics and lightweight alloys. The stealth technology includes
low-frontal radar cross-section, passive sensors and super cruise.
The airframe is unstable, said Neill, and it was designed as such
for extreme agility. It can turn rapidly in the supersonic region
and in the subsonic close, he said.
The aircraft also is designed to be able to operate in every kind
of weather, said Wilson. “Spanish facilities are very hot
and very dry; German facilities are very cold; in the U.K., we have
rain.”
The program operates an environmental test chamber, he added, “where
you can freeze the aircraft, you can bake it, you can put sun-lamps
on it, spray ice.” Eurofighter engineers paid special attention
to features such as air conditioning and a liquid cooling system
for the pilots, said Wilson.
Worming, the test pilot, said the cooling system is a much valued
feature. In Greece, for example, pilots sometimes stop flying at
certain temperatures, because it gets too hot. He emphasized that
pilot comfort is essential for successful missions.
Wilson explained that the Eurofighter testing program is designed
in such a way that each of the participating countries gets to test
certain features.
Worming stressed that tests are watched closely by the company’s
top management. “We are managed by Eurofighter Central, and
we have a chairman that makes sure that everything is singing on
the same song-sheet,” he said.
“One of the things we have to recognize at the moment is
that there is an enormous amount of aircraft in the export market,”
said Wilson. “Countries are just starting to look at the capabilities.
We don’t have, at the moment, the luxury to say, ‘well
come over, and spend some time and look at the operations,’
because we are just at the beginning.”
Within the European Union, the Netherlands snubbed the Eurofighter
in favor of the JSF, while an order of 60 jets for Greece is up
in the air, because Greece is cash strapped as a result of the 2004
Olympics, according to Worming. Sweden has its own aircraft, the
Gripen, while the French fly their Rafale jets.
Both the Gripen and the Rafale also have been bogged down with
delays, cost and technical problems. The French originally had intended
to join the Eurofighter program, but then decided to build their
own airplane, said Worming.
The Gripen, he said, “is very good, but also very unique.”
The specifications were designed for operations with Swedish ground
stations and were not NATO compatible, he said.
Lars Campner, vice president for Gripen, explained that the aircraft
was specifically designed for the Swedish Air Force, but the export
version is NATO interoperable. The Swedish Air Force ordered 240
planes and so far received 121. The rest are going to be upgraded
for NATO interoperability, he said.
South Africa is set to receive 28 jets; Hungary is leasing 14,
and the Czech Republic recently agreed to acquire the Gripen, but
had to withdraw its order this summer, in the aftermath of deadly
floods that ravaged the country.
Gripen has also received a request from Poland and is competing
for a possible sale in Brazil. Other potential customers that Eurofighter
is courting include Norway, Singapore and Saudi Arabia, company
officials said.