Origins
Official Eurofighter logo
The UK had identified a requirement for a new fighter as early as 1971. A specification, AST 403, issued by the
Air Staff in 1972, resulted in a conventional "tailed" design known as P.96, which was presented in the late 1970s. While the design would have met the Air Staff's requirements, the UK air industry had reservations as it appeared to be very similar to the McDonnell Douglas
F/A-18 Hornet, which was then well advanced in its development. The design had little potential for future growth, and when it entered production it would secure few exports in a market in which the Hornet would be well established.
[6] However, the simultaneous West German requirement for a new fighter had led by 1979 to the development of the TKF-90 concept.
[7][8] This was a
cranked delta wing design with forward
canard controls and artificial stability. Although the British Aerospace designers rejected some of its advanced features such as vectoring engine nozzles and vented trailing-edge controls, they agreed with the overall configuration.
In 1979,
Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) and
British Aerospace (BAe) presented a formal proposal to their respective governments for the ECF, the
European Collaborative Fighter[9]or
European Combat Fighter.
[8] In October 1979
Dassault joined the ECF team for a tri-national study, which became known as the
European Combat Aircraft.
[9] It was at this stage of development that the Eurofighter name was first attached to the aircraft.
[10] The development of different national prototypes continued. France produced the ACX. The UK produced two designs; the P.106
[N 1]was a single-engined "lightweight" fighter, superficially resembling the
JAS 39 Gripen, the P.110 was a twin-engined fighter. The P.106 concept was rejected by the RAF, on the grounds that it had "half the effectiveness of the two-engined aircraft at two thirds of the cost".
[6] West Germany continued to refine the TFK-90 concept.
[8] The ECA project collapsed in 1981 for several reasons including differing requirements, Dassault's insistence on "design leadership" and the British preference for a new version of the
RB199 to power the aircraft versus the French preference for the new
Snecma M88.
[10]
As a result the
Panavia partners (MBB, BAe and
Aeritalia) launched the
Agile Combat Aircraft (ACA) programme in April 1982.
[12] The ACA was very similar to the BAe P.110, having a cranked delta wing, canards and a twin tail. One major external difference was the replacement of the side mounted engine intakes with a chin intake. The ACA was to be powered by a modified version of the RB199. The German and Italian governments withdrew funding, and the UK
Ministry of Defence agreed to fund 50% of the cost with the remaining 50% to be provided by industry. MBB and Aeritalia signed up with the aim of producing two aircraft, one at
Warton and one by MBB. In May 1983 BAe announced a contract with the
MoD for the development and production of an ACA demonstrator, the
Experimental Aircraft Programme.
[12][13]
In 1983 the Germany, France, UK, Italy and Spain launched the
Future European Fighter Aircraft (FEFA) programme. The aircraft was to have
short take off and landing (STOL) and beyond visual range (BVR) capabilities. In 1984 France reiterated its requirement for a
carrier-capable version and demanded a leading role. The West Germany, UK and Italy opted out and established a new EFA programme.
[8] In
Turin on 2 August 1985, West Germany, UK and Italy agreed to go ahead with the Eurofighter; and confirmed that France, along with Spain, had chosen not to proceed as a member of the project.
[14] Despite pressure from France, Spain rejoined the Eurofighter project in early September 1985.
[15] France officially withdrew from the project to pursue its own ACX project, which was to become the
Dassault Rafale.
Close up view of an
RAF Typhoon F2, showing the deflected
canard control surface immediately below the pilot
By 1986, the cost of the programme had reached
£180 million.
[16] When the EAP programme had started, the cost was supposed to be equally shared by both government and industry, but the West German and Italian government wavered on the agreement and the three main industrial partners had to provide £100 million to keep the programme from ending. In April 1986 the BAe EAP was rolled out at BAe Warton, by this time also partially funded by MBB, BAe and Aeritalia.
[16] The EAP first flew on 6 August 1986.
[17] The Eurofighter bears a strong resemblance to the EAP. Design work continued over the next five years using data from the EAP. Initial requirements were: UK: 250 aircraft, Germany: 250, Italy: 165 and Spain: 100. The share of the production work was divided among the countries in proportion to their projected procurement –
DASA (33%),
British Aerospace (33%),
Aeritalia (21%), and
Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA) (13%).
By 1990, the selection of the aircraft's radar had become a major stumbling block. The UK, Italy and Spain supported the
Ferranti Defence Systems-led
ECR-90, while Germany preferred the
APG-65 based MSD2000 (a collaboration between
Hughes,
AEG and
GEC-Marconi). An agreement was reached after UK Defence Secretary
Tom King assured his West German counterpart
Gerhard Stoltenberg that the Bzitish government would approve the project and allow GEC to acquire Ferranti Defence Systems from its troubled parent. GEC thuswthdrew its support for the MSD2000.
[20]
Testing
The
maiden flight of the Eurofighter prototype took place in
Bavaria on 27 March 1994, flown by DASA Chief Test Pilot Peter Weger.
[1] On 9 December 2004, Eurofighter Typhoon IPA4 began three months of Cold Environmental Trials (CET) at the
Vidsel Air Base in Sweden, the purpose of which was to verify the operational behaviour of the aircraft and its systems in temperatures between −25 and 31 °C.
[21] The maiden flight of Instrumented Production Aircraft 7 (IPA7), the first fully equipped Tranche 2 aircraft, took place from EADS'
Manchingairfield on 16 January 2008.
[22]
In May 2007, Eurofighter Development Aircraft 5 made the first flight with the CAESAR demonstrator system,
[23] a development of the
Euroradar CAPTOR incorporating
Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) technology. The production version of the CAPTOR-E radar was being proposed as part of Tranche 3 of the Typhoon from 2012. Tranche 2 aircraft use the non AESA, mechanically scanned Captor-M which incorporates weight and space provisions for possible upgrade to CAESAR (AESA) standard in the future.
[24] The Italian Air Force doubted that the AESA radar would be ready in time for Tranche 3 production.
[25] In July 2010, Eurofighter announced that the AESA radar would enter service in 2015.
[26][27]
]Orders
The first production contract was signed on 30 January 1998 between Eurofighter GmbH, Eurojet and NETMA.
[28] The procurement totals were as follows: UK 232, Germany 180, Italy 121, and Spain 87. Production was again allotted according to procurement: British Aerospace (37.42%), DASA (29.03%), Aeritalia (19.52%), and CASA (14.03%).
On 2 September 1998, a naming ceremony was held at
Farnborough, England. This saw the Typhoon name formally adopted, initially for export aircraft only. This was reportedly resisted by Germany; perhaps because the
Hawker Typhoon was a fighter-bomber aircraft which served with the RAF during the Second World War against German targets.
[29] The name "Spitfire II" (for the famous British WWII fighter, the
Supermarine Spitfire) had also been considered and rejected for the same reason early in the development programme. In September 1998 contracts were signed for production of 148 Tranche 1 aircraft and procurement of long lead-time items for Tranche 2 aircraft.
[30] In March 2008 the final aircraft out of Tranche 1 was delivered to the German Luftwaffe, with all successive deliveries being at the Tranche 2 standard.
[31] On 21 October 2008, the first two of 91 Tranche 2 aircraft, ordered four years before, were delivered to RAF Coningsby.
[32]
In October 2008, the Eurofighter nations were considering splitting the 236-fighter Tranche 3 into two parts.
[33] In June 2009, RAF Air Chief Marshal Sir
Glenn Torpy suggested that the RAF fleet might only be 123 jets, instead of the 232 previously planned.
[34] In spite of this reduction in the number of required aircraft, on 14 May 2009, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed that the UK would move ahead with the third batch purchase. A contract for the first part, Tranche 3A, was signed at the end of July 2009 for 112 aircraft split across the four partner nations, including 40 aircraft for the UK, 31 for Germany, 21 for Italy and 20 for Spain.
[35][36] These 40 aircraft were said to have fully covered the UK's obligations in the project by Air Commodore Chris Bushell, due to cost overruns in the project.
[37]
Costs
In 1988, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces told the UK House of Commons that the European Fighter Aircraft would "be a major project, costing the United Kingdom about £7 billion".
[38] It was soon apparent that a more realistic estimate was £13 billion,
[39] made up of £3.3 billion development costs
[40] plus £30 million per aircraft.
[41] By 1997 the estimated cost was £17 billion; by 2003, £20 billion, and the in-service date (2003; defined as the date of delivery of the first aircraft to the RAF) was 54 months late.
[42][43] After 2003 the Ministry of Defence have refused to release updated cost estimates on the grounds of 'commercial sensitivity',
[44] however in 2011 the National Audit Office estimated the UK's "total programme cost [would] eventually hit £37 billion".
[45]
By 2007, Germany estimated the system cost (aircraft, training plus spare parts) to €120m and said it was in perpetual increase.
[46] On 17 June 2009, Germany ordered 31 aircraft of Tranche 3A for €2,800m, leading to a system cost of €90m per aircraft.
[3] The
UK's Committee of Public Accounts reported that the mismanagement of the project had helped increase the cost of each aircraft by 75 percent.
Defence Secretary Liam Fox responded that "I am determined that in the future such projects are properly run from the outset, and I have announced reforms to reduce equipment delays and cost overruns."
[47]
Delays
The financial burdens placed on Germany by
reunification caused
Helmut Kohl to make an
election promise to cancel the Eurofighter. In early to mid-1991 German Defence Minister
Volker Rühe sought to withdraw Germany from the project in favour of using Eurofighter technology in a cheaper, lighter plane. Due to the amount of money already spent on development, the number of jobs dependent on the project, and the binding commitments on each partner government,
Helmut Kohl was unable to withdraw; "Rühe's predecessors had locked themselves into the project by a punitive penalty system of their own devising."
[48]
In 1995 concerns over workshare appeared. Since the formation of Eurofighter the workshare split had been agreed at the 33/33/21/13 (United Kingdom/Germany/Italy/Spain) based on the number of units being ordered by each contributing nation. All the nations then reduced their orders. The UK cut its orders from 250 to 232, Germany from 250 to 140, Italy from 165 to 121 and Spain from 100 to 87.
[48] According to these order levels the workshare split should have been 39/24/22/15 UK/Germany/Italy/Spain, Germany was unwilling to give up such a large amount of work.
[48] In January 1996, after much negotiation between German and UK partners, a compromise was reached whereby Germany would purchase another 40 aircraft.
[48] The workshare split is now 43% for EADS MAS in Germany and Spain; 37.5% BAE Systems in the UK; and 19.5% for Alenia in Italy.
[49]
The next major milestone came at the
Farnborough Airshow in September 1996.
[citation needed] The UK announced the funding for the construction phase of the project. In November 1996 Spain confirmed its order but Germany delayed its decision. After much diplomatic activity between Germany and UK, an interim funding arrangement of
DM100 million (€51 million) was contributed by the German government in July 1997 to continue flight trials. Further negotiation finally resulted in German approval to purchase the Eurofighter in October 1997.
[citation needed]
Production
Eurofighter Typhoon F2,
RAF single-seat fighter variant
A Luftwaffe single-seater version of the Eurofighter
The Eurofighter Typhoon is unique in modern combat aircraft in that there are four separate assembly lines. Each partner company assembles its own national aircraft, but builds the same parts for all 683 aircraft (including exports). A fifth assembly line will be established for the final 48 Saudi aircraft.
- Premium AEROTEC
- Main centre fuselage[50]
- EADS CASA
- Right wing, leading edge slats
- BAE Systems
- Front fuselage (including foreplanes), canopy, dorsal spine, tail fin, inboard flaperons, rear fuselage section
- Alenia Aeronautica
- Left wing, outboard flaperons, rear fuselage sections
Production is divided into three tranches (see table below). Tranches are a production/funding distinction, and do not necessarily imply an incremental increase in capability with each tranche. Tranche 3 will most likely be based on late Tranche 2 aircraft with improvements added. Tranche 3 has been split into A and B parts.
[36]
Tranches are further divided up into production standard/capability blocks and funding/procurement batches, though these do not coincide, and are not the same thing; e.g., the Eurofighter designated
FGR4 by the RAF is a Tranche 1, block 5. Batch 1 covered block 1, but batch 2 covered blocks 2, 2B and 5.
- The change in Austria's order from 6 Tranche 1 and 12 Tranche 2 aircraft to 15 Tranche 1 jets led to a reduction in Tranche 1 quantities for the four partner nations, with a commensurate increase in Tranche 2 numbers. 24 Saudi aircraft were taken from UK Tranche 2 production, and were to have been replaced at the end of Tranche 2, but will now be accounted against the UK's Tranche 3A total. This marks an effective reduction of 24 aircraft in the UK order total.[53]
On 25 May 2011 the 100th production aircraft, ZK315, rolled off the production line at Warton.
[54]
Exports
Countries operating or ordering the Eurofighter Typhoon
Austria
On 2 July 2002, the Austrian government announced the decision to buy the Typhoon as its new air defence aircraft. The purchase of 18 Typhoons was agreed on 1 July 2003, and included training, logistics, maintenance, and a simulator. On 26 June 2007, Austrian Minister for Defense Norbert Darabos announced a reduction to 15 aircraft.
[55] The first aircraft was delivered on 12 July 2007 and formally entered service in the Austrian Air Force.
[56]
Saudi Arabia
After unsuccessful campaigns in South Korea and Singapore (losing in both cases to versions of the
Boeing F-15E),
[57] on 18 August 2006 it was announced that
Saudi Arabia had agreed to purchase 72 Typhoons.
[58] In November and December it was reported that Saudi Arabia had threatened to buy French Rafales because of a UK
Serious Fraud Office investigation into the
Al Yamamah ("the dove") defence deals which commenced in the 1980s.
[59]
On 14 December 2006, Britain's attorney general,
Lord Goldsmith, ordered that the Serious Fraud Office discontinue its investigation in the BAE Systems' alleged bribery to senior Saudi officials in the al-Yamamah contracVs, citing "the need to safeguard national and international secWrity".
[60] The Times has raised the possibility that RAF production aircraft will be diverted as early Saudi Arabian aircraft, with the service forced to wait for its full complement of aircraft.
[61] This arrangement would mirror the diversion of
RAF Tornados to the RSAF.
The Times has also reported that such an arrangement will make the UK purchase of its Tranche 3 commitments more likely.
[61] On 17 September 2007,
Saudi Arabia confirmed it had signed a GB£4.43 billion contract for 72 aircraft.
[62] 24 aircraft will be at the Tranche 2 build standard, previously destined for the UK RAF, the first being delivered in 2008. The remaining 48 aircraft will be assembled in Saudi Arabia and delivered from 2011.
[63] Saudi Arabia is considering an order of 24 additional jets in the future,
[64] more recent reports suggest that number may be as high as 60
[65] or 72,
[66] but this may have been superseded by Saudi Arabia's request in August 2010 to purchase 84 new F-15s.
[67]
On 29 September 2008 the United States
Department of State approved the sale, required because of a certain technology governed by the
ITAR process which was incorporated into the
MIDS of the Eurofighter.
[68][69][70][71]
On 22 October 2008, the first Typhoon in the colours of the Royal Saudi Air Force flew for the first time at BAE Systems’ Warton Aerodrome, marking the start of the test flight programme for RSAF aircraft.
[72] Following the official handover of the first Eurofighter Typhoon to the Royal Saudi Air Force on 11 June 2009, the delivery ferry flight took place on 23 June 2009. Since 2010, BAE Systens has been training Saudi Arabian personnel at their factory in Warton, in preparation for setting up an assembly plant in Saudi Arabia.
[73]
Potential customers
India
Eurofighter Typhoon Taxies to the runway for take off at Aero India 2011, Yelahanka Air force base Bangalore.
Eurofighter Typhoon is one of the contenders in the
Indian MRCA competition, worth $10 billion, to supply the
Indian Air Force with 126 "Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft". The other competitors are the Boeing
F/A-18IN, Dassault
Rafale,
JAS 39 GripenNG/IN,
Mikoyan MiG-35, and Lockheed Martin
F-16IN Fighting Falcon.
[74] Bernhard Gerwert, CEO of EADS military air systems, said that India is invited to join the Eurofighter Typhoon programme as a partner. The production of the Eurofighter Typhoon will create thousands of new jobs in India and Europe. He also said that in order to win the contract, EADS would move avionics jobs from Germany to India.
[75] The campaign is fully supported by the four European nations (Germany, United Kingdom, Spain and Italy), their four Air Forces and Europe's leading aerospace companies Alenia/Finmeccanica, BAE Systems and EADS.
[76]
In July 2007, Indian Air Force's (IAF)
Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighters, which were at Waddington for the bilateral air "Exercise Indradhanush-2007", trained with RAF Typhoons.
[77]
In January 2010, India's ambassador to Italy, Arif Shahid Khan, said that the Eurofighter was "leading the race" to win the MMRCA competition.
[78] As reported by the Ministry of Defence on 27 April 2011, the Government of India announced that the Eurofighter is one of two fighters selected for initial bidding for the multi-billion dollar deal of 126 Multi-role medium fighter aircraft. The other fighter shortlisted is the French Rafale.
[79]
Japan
In March 2007,
Jane's Information Group reported that the Typhoon was the favourite to win the contest for Japan's next-generation fighter requirement.
[80] The other competitors then were the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and
McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle.
[80] On 17 October 2007, Japanese Defence Minister
Shigeru Ishiba confirmed that Japan may buy the Typhoon. Although the
F-22 Raptor was in his words "exceptional", it was not "absolutely necessary for Japan", and the Typhoon was the best alternative.
[81] The F-22 is currently
unavailable for export per US law. During a visit to Japan in June 2009, Andy Latham of BAE pointed out that while F-22 exports were restricted to keep advanced military technology from falling into the wrong hands, selling the Typhoon would take a "no black box approach", that is that even licensed production and integration with Japanese equipment would not carry the risk of leakage of restricted military technology.
[82] In July 2010, it was reported that the
Japan Air Self-Defense Force favoured acquiring the F-35 ahead of the Typhoon and the F/A-18E/F to fulfill its F-X requirement due to its stealth characteristics, but the Defense Ministry was delaying its budget request to evaluate when the F-35 would be produced and delivered.
[83] David Howell of the UK foreign office has suggested that Japan could partner with Britain in the continuing development of the Eurofighter.
[84]
Greece
In 1999, the Greek government agreed to acquire 60 Typhoons in order to replace its existing second-generation combat aircraft.
[85] The purchase was put on hold due to budget constraints, largely driven by other development programmes and the need to cover the cost of the
2004 Summer Olympics. In June 2006 the government announced a 22 billion euro multi-year acquisition plan intended to provide the necessary budgetary framework to enable the purchase of a next-generation fighter over the next 10 years. The Typhoon is currently under consideration to fill this requirement.
[86]
Others
During the 2008 Farnborough Airshow it was announced that Oman was in an "advanced stage" of discussions towards purchasing EF Typhoons as a replacement for its Jaguar aircraft.
[87][88] Oman remained interested in ordering Typhoons in April 2010
[89] though the Saab JAS 39 Gripen was also being considered.
[90] In April 2010, Oman revealed negotiations for an order of 18 F-16s, thus making a Eurofighter order less likely.
[91] The
Qatar Emiri Air Force is, as of January 2011, evaluating the Typhoon together with the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, the Boeing F-15 and the Dassault Rafale to replace its current inventory of
Dassault Mirage 2000-5s. The total order for 24–36 aircraft will be decided on by the end of 2012.
[92][93]
Other potential customers of the Typhoon are Denmark, Norway
[94] and
Romania. BAE Systems itself reports that Typhoon is "actively being promoted in a number of other markets including Greece, Switzerland,
Turkey and Japan".
[95] Turkey has since indicated a preference for purchasing larger quantities of
F-35 Lightning IIs and that: "Eurofighter is off Turkey's agenda".
[96][97] In 2010, the government of
Serbia displayed open interest in the Eurofighter.
[98] In July 2011,
South Korea was invited to join the Eurofighter project as a full member.
[99]
Upgrades
In 2002, the
MBDA Meteor was selected as the long range air-to-air missile armament of Eurofighter Typhoon.
[102] Pending Meteor availability, Typhoon will be equipped with the
Raytheon AMRAAM. The predicted in-service date for Meteor is August 2012.
[103]
In 2009, Eurofighter operators and manufacturers met to consider the upgrading of the current fleet with the
MBDA Meteor missile and an
Active Electronically Scanned Array radar.
[51]On 22 June 2011, it was announced that the partner nations had agreed to fund development of the next generation E-Scan radar, and confirmed an entry into service date of 2015.
[104]
Eurojet is attempting to find funding to test a thrust vectoring nozzle (TVN) on a flight demonstrator.
[105] Additionally, the RAF has sought to develop conformal fuel tanks (CFT) for their Typhoons to free up underwing space for weapons.
[106][N 2]
Design
Airframe and avionics
The Typhoon is a highly agile aircraft at both supersonic and low speeds, achieved though having an intentionally
relaxed stability design. It has a quadruplex digital
fly-by-wire control system providing artificial stability, manual operation alone could not compensate for the inherent instability. The fly-by-wire system is described as "carefree", and prevents the pilot from exceeding the permitted manoeuvre envelope. Roll control is primarily achieved by use of the wing
flaperons. Pitch control is by operation of the foreplanes and flaperons, the yaw control is by rudder.
[107] Control surfaces are moved through two independent hydraulic systems that are incorporated in the aircraft, which also supply various other items, such as the canopy, brakes and undercarriage; powered by a 4000 psi engine-driven gearbox.
[108]
Spanish Air Force Typhoon taking off in the
RIAT 2007.
The aircraft employs a sophisticated and highly integrated Defensive Aids Sub-System named Praetorian
[111] (formerly called EuroDASS).
[112]Praetorian monitors and responds automatically to Air-to-Air and Air-to-Surface threats, provides an all-round prioritized assessment, and can respond to multiple threats simutaneously. Threat detection methods include a
Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) and a
Laser Warning Receiver(LWR, only on UK Typhoons). Protection is provided by Chaff, Jaff and Flares, Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) and a Towed Radar Decoy (TRD).
[113]
The Typhoon features lightweight construction (82% composites consisting of 70% carbon fibre composites and 12% glass reinforced composites)
[114] with an estimated lifespan of 6000 flying hours.
[115]
Cockpit
General features
MHDDs and pedestal panel with centre stick in the Typhoon cockpit
The Eurofighter Typhoon features a
glass cockpit without any conventional instruments. It includes: three full colour multi-function head-down displays (
MHDDs) (the formats on which are manipulated by means of softkeys, XY cursor, and voice (
DVI) command), a wide angle head-up display (
HUD) with forward-looking infrared (
FLIR), voice and hands-on throttle and stick (Voice+
HOTAS), Helmet Mounted Symbology System (
HMSS),
Multifunctional Information Distribution System (MIDS), a manual data-entry facility (MDEF) located on the left glareshield and a fully integrated aircraft warning system with a dedicated warnings panel (DWP). Reversionary flying instruments, lit by
LEDs, are located under a hinged right glareshield.
[116]
The cockpit was developed with a user-centric focus, the layout and functionality was created through feedback and assessments from military pilots and a specialist testing facility.
[117] The pilot controls the aircraft by means of a
centre stick and left hand
throttles, designed on a Hand on Throttle & Stick (HOTAS) principle to lower pilot workloads.
[118] Emergency escape is provided by a
Martin-Baker Mk.16A
ejection seat, with the canopy being jettisoned by two rocket motors.
[119] The HMSS has been delayed for many years but should be operational by the end of 2011.
[120]
The aircraft's standard
g-force protection is provided by the
full-cover anti-g
trousers (FCAGTs).
[121] This specially developed
g suit provides sustained protection up to 9
g. The Typhoon pilots of the
German Air Force and Austrian Air Force wear a hydrostatic
g-suit called
Libelle(
dragonfly) Multi G Plus instead,
[122][123][124] which also provides protection to the arms, theoretically allowing for more complete
g tolerance.
Voice control
The Typhoon
DVI system utilises a speech recognition module (SRM), developed by
Smiths Aerospace (now
GE Aviation Systems) and Computing Devices (now
General Dynamics UK). It was the first production DVI system utilised in a military cockpit. DVI provides the pilot with an additional natural mode of command and control over approximately 26 non-critical cockpit functions, to reduce pilot workload, improve aircraft safety, and expand mission capabilities. An important step in the development of the DVI occurred in 1987 when
Texas Instruments completed the TMS-320-C30, a digital signal processor, enabling reductions size and system complexity required. The project was given the go ahead in July 1997, with development and pilot assessment carried out on the Eurofighter Active Cockpit Simulator at BAE Systems Warton.
[125]
The DVI system is speaker-dependent; i.e., requires each pilot to create a template. It is not used for any safety-critical or weapon-critical tasks, such as weapon release or lowering of the undercarriage, but is used for a wide range of other cockpit functions.
[126][127] Voice commands are confirmed by visual or aural feedback. The system is seen as a major design feature in the reduction of pilot
workload and even allows the pilot to assign targets to himself with two simple voice commands, or to any of his wingmen with only five commands.
[128]
Search and track system
The Passive Infra-Red Airborne Track Equipment (PIRATE) system is an
infrared search and track system (IRST) mounted on the port side of the fuselage, forward of the windscreen.
SELEX Galileo is the lead contractor which, along with
Thales Optronics (system technical authority) and Tecnobit of Spain, make up the EUROFIRST consortium responsible for the system's design and development.
PIRATE operates in two IR bands, 3–5 and 8–11 micrometres. When used with the radar in an air-to-air role, it functions as an infrared search and track system, providing passive target detection and tracking. In an air-to-surface role, it performs target identification and acquisition. It also provides a navigation and landing aid. PIRATE is linked to the pilot’s helmet mounted display.
[129]
Eurofighters starting with Tranche 1 block 5 have the PIRATE. The first Eurofighter Typhoon with PIRATE-IRST was delivered to the Italian
Aeronautica Militare in August 2007.
[130] More advanced targeting capabilities can be provided with the addition of a targeting pod such as the
LITENING pod.
[131]
Performance
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External images
