Atilla77 said:
SavunmaSanayiST claims domestic munitions will be integrated on the acquired Eurofighters
“Our munitions capable of being integrated to Typhoons” is a statement not quite what is meant in the sense you are describing.
Normally if you want your munitions to be integrated, you send the plane and the munition to the factory and they will integrate them for you. This is a service for which we will be charged millions of dollars per munition.
This was the case for SOM-J if you remember.
What we really and actually want is partial source code acccess, to be able to integrate any of our new or old munition to the platform at our leisure.
In the past, one selling point of EF was that it was almost open source, users could handle integrating munitions they wanted to add themselves; all partner nations got a development prototype and these still fly today for testsi But in reality, because most of the users of EF are either Europeans that don't do war anymore, or Gulf nations that just pay the others to do things for them, this really hasn't happened and there are plenty of weapons not rated for EF.
So it might not be too easy to do this. But, EF architecture is still pretty open ended, and depending on what the "Turkish configuration" is, we might have a fleet that is indeed fully ours in time. EF architecture is so open ended in that a German Typhoon and a British Typhoon are really different planes, with different roles and munitions.
Re TurAF, best outcome is to get an open check to create our own configuration together with BAE, get our own IPA aircraft to test our requirements and munitions and avionics ourselves and get this ball rolling. Re my earlier comment of the other users, I might even dare say that if this finally happens, TurAF will be the most serious user of Typhoon in the world, and we will probably push others to spend more on further development.
It's confusing. Afaik, Trench 5 hasn't even been developed yet.
It's confusing because the whole development of this aircraft is a literal hell. 4 owners who really didn't want to pay for it, 3 production lines, tens of different variants, user countries further beating each other to not have to pay for its development. It really is a miracle that whole consortium still exists in its current state.
Currently Spanish and German Tranche 4 aircraft that were ordered in 2024 are getting ready for production with deliveries starting from 2028. Germany this month placed the first order for Tranche 5 with claimed deliveries starting from 2031. UK is not part of Tranche 5 so far with no plans; so Tranche 5 is pretty German led and will have the ECRS Mk1 radars as far as we're aware.
One thing with "Tranche" wording is that people confuse it with Blocks we know from American jets. Eurofighters still have their own internal block numbers. A Tranche is a part, originally named as such because production was split into parts between consortium owners; with each country funding and doing some part of the development. But with all owners playing their own flutes re US and F-35 and not wanting to pay more money, attentions shifted. Tranche 3 was more British led, while Tranche 4 and 5 being more German led. Mk1 and Mk2 radars are being developed concurrently, Mk1 is German and Spanish, while Mk2 is British and Italian. German and Spanish dominated Tranche 4 and 5 will mostly feature Mk1, while Brits and Italians will upgrade their Tranche 3s with Mk2 radar. If Turkey places the new build order, they will probably be the only Tranche 4s to have the Mk2 radar.
It's theorized that Mk2 is a better radar, so the upgraded RAF T3s with Mk2 radars will possibly be better equipped than German Tranche 5s. Because again, it's not a block number denoting capabilities but basically a build order list.
It's definitely confusing. And nice to see you again
@Afif , been a while.
flight.com.gr
