UK to retire Tranche 1 Typhoons with more than half of airframe hours remaining

[Isa Khan]

The UK's recently revealed plan to prematurely retire its Tranche 1 Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft will see the fleet axed with more than half of its airframe fatigue life remaining, the government said on 7 September.

Answering questions in the House of Commons, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defence, James Heappey, said that the Tranche 1 Typhoons that were earmarked for early retirement in the Defence Command Paper published on 22 March would be retired with an average of nearly 60% of their airframe fatigue lives remaining.

“There are 30 Typhoon Tranche 1 aircraft in the sustainment fleet and the projected average flying hours for each of the aircraft, when they reach their respective out-of-service date, is 2,544.8 flying hours,” Heappey said.

With the Typhoon notionally rated to an airframe life of 6,000 hours, 2,544.8 hours represent just 42.4% of airframe use. With this figure being averaged out across the fleet, a number of the more recently delivered aircraft will have flown significantly fewer hours than this. Of the 53 Tranche 1 aircraft received by the Royal Air Force (RAF), 30 remain in the inventory. Of these, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) told Janes that 20 are in active service while the remaining 10 are in storage.

UK to retire Tranche 1 Typhoons with more than half of airframe hours remaining

The UK's recently revealed plan to prematurely retire its Tranche 1 Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft will see the fleet axed with more than half of its airframe...

www.janes.com

 

[Gary]

View attachment 30813

The UK's recently revealed plan to prematurely retire its Tranche 1 Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft will see the fleet axed with more than half of its airframe fatigue life remaining, the government said on 7 September.

Answering questions in the House of Commons, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Defence, James Heappey, said that the Tranche 1 Typhoons that were earmarked for early retirement in the Defence Command Paper published on 22 March would be retired with an average of nearly 60% of their airframe fatigue lives remaining.

“There are 30 Typhoon Tranche 1 aircraft in the sustainment fleet and the projected average flying hours for each of the aircraft, when they reach their respective out-of-service date, is 2,544.8 flying hours,” Heappey said.

With the Typhoon notionally rated to an airframe life of 6,000 hours, 2,544.8 hours represent just 42.4% of airframe use. With this figure being averaged out across the fleet, a number of the more recently delivered aircraft will have flown significantly fewer hours than this. Of the 53 Tranche 1 aircraft received by the Royal Air Force (RAF), 30 remain in the inventory. Of these, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) told Janes that 20 are in active service while the remaining 10 are in storage.

UK to retire Tranche 1 Typhoons with more than half of airframe hours remaining

The UK's recently revealed plan to prematurely retire its Tranche 1 Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft will see the fleet axed with more than half of its airframe...

www.janes.com

I heard BD is searching for EF2000 no?

 

[NEKO]

If ID get Austrian EF and this, we a can get decent number of fighter in just a short time, 3 / 4 squadron.

 

[Isa Khan]

The Royal Air Force’s Eurofighter Typhoon Tranche 1 aircraft being retired in 2025 will have average flying hours of almost 2,545 hours when they are taken out of service.

That means they will have over half of their useful life left. AeroTime asked the Ministry of Defence why.

RAF spokesman Martin Tinworth said on September 10, 2021 that retiring the older aircraft means investment can be made in the remaining Tranche 2/3s “to ensure we retain a credible, highly capable Typhoon force.”

“Spiral upgrades, including the integration of the UK-development Spear Cap 3, will be enhanced by a significant investment in Radar 2, providing a leap in operation capability that will ensure the Typhoon Force can survive and operate in the most challenging threat scenarios,” Tinworth explained to AeroTime.

When asked whether the Tranche 1 fighter jets could be sold, the RAF spokesman said “potential disposal options” were currently being reviewed.

The average expected flying hours of the fighter aircraft at retirement was announced by James Heappey, the parliamentary under-secretary of state for defence in a written response to a question posed by a member of parliament.

“There are 30 Typhoon Tranche 1 aircraft in the sustainment fleet and the projected average flying hours for each of the aircraft, when they reach their respective Out of Service Date, is 2544.8 flying hours,” Heappey wrote on September 6, 2021.

The fighter jet has a notional airframe life of 6,000 hours, meaning the hours at retirement represent just 42% of their useful life, Jane’s reported on September 8, 2021.

Of the 30 Tranche 1 Typhoons, 20 are in active use while the other 10 are stored at RAF Shawbury.

The Tranche 1 variant of the aircraft, the eldest of the four developed, is limited to the use of air-air missiles and has very limited air-ground capabilities without the use of an external pod. Therefore, it is often limited to air superiority missions such as Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) purposes by its operators.

The overall RAF Typhoon Force is currently operating on multiple missions across the globe, including QRA missions in the UK, Romania and the Falkland Islands, as well as Operation Shader, the British contribution in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq.

The retirement of the Tranche 1 Typhoon aircraft was announced in a Defence Command Paper published on March 19, 2021. The paper promised a “radical overhaul” of the RAF.

As part of the overhaul, the UK also announced plans to retire 14 C-130J Hercules Mk4 by 2023, to make way for the A400M. The Hercules aircraft had been due to continue flying until the mid 2030s.

RAF to retire Typhoons halfway through service life

The Royal Air Force will retire 30 Typhoon aircraft in 2025 with over half of their useful life left.

www.aerotime.aero

I heard BD is searching for EF2000 no?

Yes, at least that's what everything indicate. These aircraft could help BAF to quickly modernize it's fleet as a good stop-gap solution. Will upgrade increase the air frame's life? I guess upgrade only allows it use PGM.

 

[Gary]

Yes, at least that's what everything indicate. These aircraft could help BAF to quickly modernize it's fleet as a good stop-gap solution. Will upgrade increase the air frame's life? I guess upgrade only allows it use PGM.

Well this is BD chance.

BAF should consider this, brand new Tranche 3 comes with a hefty price tag. A squadron of this even the basic trance 1 could at least level the ante with Myanmar.

 

[Rajendra Chola]

I think they will kept in reserve. UK DoD still hasn't spoke about selling them.

 

[F-6 enthusiast]

BAF should consider this, brand new Tranche 3 comes with a hefty price tag

does anyone know how much they cost though ? i have seen anywhere from 90 million (airframe) to 300 million USD (Kuwait deal which included weapons and training package)

All i know is that BAF wants to spend 3 billion USD for 16 planes ( 185 million per plane ) including training, logistics support and weapons package.

 

[Gary]

does anyone know how much they cost though ? i have seen anywhere from 90 million (airframe) to 300 million USD (Kuwait deal which included weapons and training package)

All i know is that BAF wants to spend 3 billion USD for 16 planes ( 185 million per plane ) including training, logistics support and weapons package.

Should be close to the Kuwaiti one, beside the Typhoon is an entirely brand new platform for BD. The contracts should come with the necessary infrastructure which prolly will cost a lot.

 

[F-6 enthusiast]

Should be close to the Kuwaiti one, beside the Typhoon is an entirely brand new platform for BD. The contracts should come with the necessary infrastructure which prolly will cost a lot.

yea but Kuwait probably maxed out on weapons package (being a gulf state) and there might have been some corruption. they got the most advanced variant for which they Might have contributed to the development cost (this is my speculation).

From the article :

Kuwait parliament asks why Eurofighter deal is so expensive​

there is this paragraph:

The source said the value of the deal struck by Kuwait was much higher compared to the value of similar deals signed by Qatar to purchase 24 similar fighters at 5 billion pounds (Dh22.65 billion), while the Saudi Ministry of Defence had also concluded a contract to purchase 72 Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft (older generation) worth $8.86 billion (Dh32.58 billion). Oman also concluded a deal to buy 24 Typhoon fighters at a cost of $2.24 billion from the United Kingdom.

Deals with Airbus under scanner​

Kuwait in recent years initiated criminal investigations into two large military aircraft deals involving Airbus — $9 billion Eurofighter Typhoon warplanes deal and a contract for 30 Caracal military helicopters costing $1.2 billion.
It has been reported that the price of the fighters reached $110 million per plane in deals entered into by several countries (UK, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Saudi Arabia and Oman), while in case of Kuwait, the price came to $321 million.

In addition to the actual deal, sources have cited reports that the original contract included several appendices for various ancillary facilities: Building a five-star club for use by the fighter pilots and a water desalination station for the fighter base. Contracts for building these facilities have been handed out to a specific local contracting company, even though such contracts are supposed to be offered separately to multiple contractors.

Source: https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/kuw...y-eurofighter-deal-is-so-expensive-1.72293777

thanks

 

[Rajendra Chola]

I think potential buy wishers are quite getting ahead of themselves. Even US has aircrafts which have been 'retired' before their service life. But they are not sold. Kept in reserve for sometime like 4-5 years before completely scrapped off. UK with its historic low defence budget, I don't think they will sell it with lots of airframe life available. They will keep it in reserve for next 4-5 years till F35 comes in full.

So people are jumping the gun here. Germany and Austrian EF (especially this country) are best bets to buy.