Built by a consortium of Alenia Aermacchi, Airbus Group and BAE Systems under a joint company known as Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH that was formed in 1986, Eurofighter Typhoon is a multirole fighter with twin engines and canard-delta wing. The whole project was overseen by NATO EuroFighter and Tornado Management Agency.

The development of Eurofighter Typhoon began as early as 1983 and it was done under the Future European Fighter Aircraft programme, a partnership that was made between several countries including United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. However, the French had some disagreements over the authority of the design and requirements to operate the aircraft which led them to develop the Dassault Rafale on their own. Eurofighter Typhoon first took flight on 27th of March 1994 using its first prototype and the Typhoon name was only adopted in September 1998 when Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH signs its first production contract.

It was only introduced on 4th of August 2003 and the reason for such a long delay was said to be contributed by factors such as political issues between the countries that are involved in the partnership, the sudden end to the Cold War leading to the lack of demand for fighter aircrafts, Germany’s financial burdens which nearly led to the cancelation of the Eurofighter Typhoon project and the ongoing debates regarding the cost of the aircraft and the workload involved. Eurofighter Typhoon was then introduced into several Air Force bases including the Austrian Air Force, Italian Air Force, German Air Force, Royal Air Force, Spanish Air Force and the Royal Saudi Air Force. In addition, the Royal Air Force of Oman and Kuwait Air Force also ordered some of the fighter aircrafts and this brings the total number of orders up to 599 fighter aircrafts by 2016.

Being a highly agile aircraft, the Eurofighter Typhoon is ideal to be used as a super effective dogfighter during combat situations. The fighter aircraft was also fitted different types of weapons including Storm Shadow, a missile made by the British, Italian and French and RAF Brimstone, a ground attack missile developed for the Royal Air Force of Britain.

Eurofighter Typhoon made its first debut during the military involvement in Libya during 2011 when several countries from NATO tried to overthrow Muammar Gadafi, the leader of Libya. The fighter aircraft performed aerial reconnaissance and ground-strike missions together with the Royal Air Force and Italian Air Force.

Technical Details

Role: Multirole Fighter

National Origin: Europe

Manufacturer: Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH

First Flight: 27th of March 1994

First Introduction: 4th of August 2003

Current Status: In service

Primary Customers: Royal Air Force, German Air Force, Italian Air Force, Spanish Air Force

Produced: 1994 to present

Total number of units built: 488 as of November 2016

Cost per unit: 90 Million Euros for the system cost Tranche 3A and another 125 Million Euros for development and production costs

Developed From: British Aerospace EAP

Height: 5.298m or 17.3 feet

Length: 15.96m or 52.4 feet

Wing Size: 51.2 metres or 551 square feet

Empty Weight: 11000 kg or 24000 pounds

Loaded Weight: 16000 kg or 35270 pounds

Maximum Take Off Weight: 23500 kg or 51800 pounds

Top Speed:

• Mach 2 Class of 2495 km/h or 1550 mph at the altitude of 10975m
• Mach 1.25 Class of 1530 km/h or 950 mph at sea level
• Mach 1.5 Class for Supercruise

Range: 2900 kilometres or 1800 miles

Guns: A Mauser BK-27 revolver cannon that has 150 rounds

Other Weapons: Air-to-air missiles, air-to-surface missiles, bombs and targeting pods

Variants: DA1 Germany, DA2 United Kingdom, DA3 Italy, DA4 United Kingdom, DA5 Germany, DA6 Spain, IPA1 United Kingdom, IPA2 Italy, IPA3 Germany, IPA4 Spain, IPA5 United Kingdom, IPA6 United Kingdom and IPA7 Germany