Saudi Arabia may Order 24 more Typhoons

[SaudiArabian]

Saudi may order 24 Eurofighter jets
Sat Nov 17, 2007 6:46am EST

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia could order 24 Eurofighter Typhoon combat jets from BAE Systems for about 1.5 billion pounds ($3.06 billion), the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) reported on Friday.

Saudi Arabia and Britain announced in September a 4.43 billion pound deal for 72 of the Eurofighters.

"The kingdom is set to decommission a number of aircraft and is thinking about a possible order for 24 more Eurofighters," MEED quoted an adviser to the Saudi government, that it did not identify, as saying.

"There is a need for new aircraft given the situation in the region, particularly the issue of Iran," the adviser was quoted as saying.

Saudi Arabia would also consider French fighter Rafale, made by Dassault Aviation , or the upgraded Boeing F-15, but favoured the Eurofighter, the adviser said.

Saudi Arabia and Britain have signed arms deals since the 1960s, including the Al Yamamah arms-for-oil pacts first signed in the 1980s which have produced an estimated 43 billion pounds of business.

© Reuters2007All rights reserved
http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNew...714982220071117


i remember an early statement by Prince Sultan (in late december of 2005) that the Saudi plans are to aquire more than 200 Typhoon Eurofighters

 

[jaffo4011]

Saudi may order 24 Eurofighter jets
Sat Nov 17, 2007 6:46am EST

DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia could order 24 Eurofighter Typhoon combat jets from BAE Systems for about 1.5 billion pounds ($3.06 billion), the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) reported on Friday.

Saudi Arabia and Britain announced in September a 4.43 billion pound deal for 72 of the Eurofighters.

"The kingdom is set to decommission a number of aircraft and is thinking about a possible order for 24 more Eurofighters," MEED quoted an adviser to the Saudi government, that it did not identify, as saying.

"There is a need for new aircraft given the situation in the region, particularly the issue of Iran," the adviser was quoted as saying.

Saudi Arabia would also consider French fighter Rafale, made by Dassault Aviation , or the upgraded Boeing F-15, but favoured the Eurofighter, the adviser said.

Saudi Arabia and Britain have signed arms deals since the 1960s, including the Al Yamamah arms-for-oil pacts first signed in the 1980s which have produced an estimated 43 billion pounds of business.

© Reuters2007All rights reserved
http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNew...714982220071117


i remember an early statement by Prince Sultan (in late december of 2005) that the Saudi plans are to aquire more than 200 Typhoon Eurofighters

i hope this goes through,it will be fantastic news for the uk and eurofighter.
in addition it will strengthen the saudi's airforce against potential threats.

as an aside i wonder if the recent scares with the grounding of the usaf f15's has had any bearing on this issue.

 

[harryriedl]

i hope this goes through,it will be fantastic news for the uk and eurofighter.
in addition it will strengthen the saudi's airforce against potential threats.

as an aside i wonder if the recent scares with the grounding of the usaf f15's has had any bearing on this issue.

well what ive gathered the French are person non grata so the Rafs out.
the F15 grownding will put off the Saudis buying more plus its an old desgin and their fleet is being upgraded [GE engins] like their Gr1 or is Gr4 im not sure.

im sure the Typoon will be getting more orders from Saudia arabia but how will the partener nations be effected they can't seem to get enough aircraft in servise quick enough. can they ramp up production so that the partners are delayed two much

 

[Musashi_kenshin]

im sure the Typoon will be getting more orders from Saudia arabia but how will the partener nations be effected they can't seem to get enough aircraft in servise quick enough. can they ramp up production so that the partners are delayed two much

I don't think more orders would affect European deliveries - more Saudi planes would probably have to wait until partner countries got their tranche 2 planes.

 

[Waylander]

Or partner nations are happy about changing from early to late slots in favor of export customers...

 

[Alpha Epsilon]

Eurofighter GmbH shouldn't have a problem delivering aircraft quickly, the UK should be glad to divert aircraft and take up later slots, it makes the 232 aircraft for the UK more affordable and it increases the production run. Final Assembly capacity shouldn't be affected as these 24 would probably be added to the 48 (of the initial 72) that will be assembled in Saudi-Arabia. I would be quite surprised if the RSAF did not order more than 72, actually over time I could imagine them ordering more than 96 Eurofighter Typhoons. With around 140 Eurofighter Typhoons produced the programme is picking up speed quite nicely, 87 export Eurofighter Typhoons signed for and BAE Systems alone is talking to more than 10 countries about the Eurofighter Typhoon, add the countries EADS and Finmeccanica are talking to and you get around 20 interested countries currently.

 

[JWCook]

The final assembly part is relatively easy, the long lead items and expensive tooling are the bottle necks, 5 axis mills and large autoclaves spring to mind, these items are complex, expensive and require suitable environments, these are the bottlenecks not final assembly.

But if the Japanese order 100+, then it may become economical to add capacity, remember it may take a few years to setup addition sites/machinery, the project is huge, complex, and political and this sort of step change in production is not to be taken lightly.

Your looking at ~2012-14 for that extra capacity to actually kick in to deliver aircraft to customers if you started right now.

Cheers

 

[jaffo4011]

within a couple of years the export potential of the typhoon has increased massively and could well be the best selling next gen fighter bar the f35 with the saudi and austrian orders already on the move and a good chance of winning the indian and japanese competitions too.
development and production costs may well be reduced as a result,to the benefit of all the partners

perhaps the u.s should be taking a look as a way of replacing their f15's with the typhoon at a much lower cost than buying additional f22's but with more capability in the air to air role than the f35!

id sell my left butt cheek if that happened!

 

[harryriedl]

within a couple of years the export potential of the typhoon has increased massively and could well be the best selling next gen fighter bar the f35 with the saudi and austrian orders already on the move and a good chance of winning the indian and japanese competitions too.
development and production costs may well be reduced as a result,to the benefit of all the partners

perhaps the u.s should be taking a look as a way of replacing their f15's with the typhoon at a much lower cost than buying additional f22's but with more capability in the air to air role than the f35!

id sell my left butt cheek if that happened!

its certainly the best selling Euro-fighter now the sky the limit

 

[barra]

within a couple of years the export potential of the typhoon has increased massively and could well be the best selling next gen fighter bar the f35 with the saudi and austrian orders already on the move and a good chance of winning the indian and japanese competitions too.
development and production costs may well be reduced as a result,to the benefit of all the partners

perhaps the u.s should be taking a look as a way of replacing their f15's with the typhoon at a much lower cost than buying additional f22's but with more capability in the air to air role than the f35!

id sell my left butt cheek if that happened!

When was the last time the Americans operated a foreign made fighter jet? The decision to buy foreign fighters would be way to unpalatable for any US President to consider. I reckon any "cheap" stop gap measure to replace old F-15's would revolve around Super Hornets for the USAF.

I think your left butt cheek is safe!!

Barra

 

[eckherl]

The issue with the F-15 could possibly get the U.S Air Force additional F-22 purchases.

 

[jaffo4011]

When was the last time the Americans operated a foreign made fighter jet? The decision to buy foreign fighters would be way to unpalatable for any US President to consider. I reckon any "cheap" stop gap measure to replace old F-15's would revolve around Super Hornets for the USAF.

I think your left butt cheek is safe!!

Barra

i guessed it might be!...however the americans dont mind flying our hawk trainers so....................

 

[Izzy1]

i guessed it might be!...however the americans dont mind flying our hawk trainers so....................

Easy now jaffo4011 - that deal was a little bit different.

Under UK Government/MoD instruction, BAE traded Harrier technologywith McDonnell Douglas for a very significant US Navy- Hawk sale. One we may even now extend to India.

 

[jaffo4011]

hey,im only joking.

it was a very tongue in cheek statement.i cant ever imagine that the us would buy foreign.it only ever works the other way when we are talking fighters and combat aircraft...

shouldn't be tho,if the u.s valued free trade as much as they say they do......

we could always call it the Macdonald Douglas/Boeing typhoon......nfloorl:

 

[Izzy1]

The RSAF will order 24 new Typhoons - this is an Air Force which feels obliged to strike.

 

[metro]

I didn't see this discussed (sorry if I missed it).
-I read that these typhoons' will be fitted with french avionics/targeting pod.
Is that your (collective) understanding?
-The typhoons that the UK have use the Lightening 3 instead, right?

Thanks swerve & radiosilence,
I just found the the article I read a while ago (slightly different than radiosilence's link).
Yeah, I don't know if avionics=navigation, or if they're two completely different things?

snippet from geo-strat.org
"Industry sources said the Saudi Eurofighter would be equipped with a French-origin navigation and targeting pod. Saudi Arabia also plans to acquire 30 Damocles pods for the upgrade of its Tornada fighter-jet fleet. Damocles has been manufactured by the Paris-based Thales.
Under the deal, Thales would subcontract pod component assembly to the Saudi firm Advanced Electronics Co. The United Arab Emirates has also purchased Damocles."

 

[swerve]

I didn't see this discussed (sorry if I missed it).
-I read that these typhoons' will be fitted with french avionics/targeting pod.
Is that your (collective) understanding?
-The typhoons that the UK have use the Lightening 3 instead, right?

Correct, RAF Typhoons use the Litening 3.

I'm sure you're right that the Saudis will buy a different targeting pod - an Israeli product is a no-no, even if made elsewhere. I've seen suggestions that they'll use the Thales Damocles, which AFAIK has been selected for their Tornado upgrade. But I don't see any reason why any other French avionics would be fitted.

 

[radiosilence]

I came across this article a few weeks back with regards to the Saudis choosing Damocles for their Typhoons.

Saudi choice for targeting pod won’t be Israeli

Typhoon combat aircraft destined for Saudi Arabia are set to be fitted with a French-made targeting pod rather than the Israeli system fitted by the British Royal Air Force.
BAE Systems inked a deal earlier this year to deliver 72 Typhoons to the Saudi air force. Part of that agreement involves Thales supplying the Damocles designator pod, said industry sources at the show....

link

 

[eaf-f16]

Am I the only one who gets the feeling that as soon as RSAF gets their Typhoons the IAF will start retrofitting their F-15I's with AESA's? USAF did that to their F-15E's so it's plausible that Israelis would.

 

[swerve]

Am I the only one who gets the feeling that as soon as RSAF gets their Typhoons the IAF will start retrofitting their F-15I's with AESA's? USAF did that to their F-15E's so it's plausible that Israelis would.

USAF hasn't begun retrofitting its F-15Es yet, though it has (after a couple of years dithering) decided to go ahead, & decided which radar. Should begin soon.

It retrofitted 18 F-15Cs several years ago, & the ANG has begun retrofitting some of its F-15Cs - first 6 contracted for in the current budget.