issue 1 - 2007 eurofighter review

� Exporting Capability

� Programme Way Ahead

� ASTA goes Operational

p r o g r a m m e n e w s a n d f e a t u r e s

Ramping up operations at Neuburg/Donau

Mission-capable Preparations

At the forefront of single seat testing and development, InstrumentedProduction Aircraft Four (IPA4) is pushed hard in striving towards certi-fication for the next generation of weapon system capabilities.

The pictures here show IPA4 during GBU-10 air-to-surface weaponrelease trials in Morón, Spain. For more details on this and other testcampaigns, turn to page five.

ed

it

or

ia

l

On 29 March, the contract for clearingthe roadmap for the integration of newweapon system functionalities based on therequirements of the four Partner Air Forceswas signed between the General Manager ofthe NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Manage-ment Agency (NETMA) and EurofighterGmbH Chief Executive Officer, AloysiusRauen. This contract extends the capabili-ties of Eurofighter Typhoon beyond those already delivered with Tranche 1 based onthe Main Development Contract.

Speaking about the contract, officiallyentitled “First Batch of Enhancements forthe Eurofighter”, Aloysius Rauen commented:“The contract covers the so-called Phase 1Enhancement for Tranche 2 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft. It will mainly focus on air-to-surface capabilities and communicationimprovements. It will further position Eurofighter Typhoon at the forefront of mul-ti-role/swing-role fighter aircraft and under-line the market leader position of the weaponsystem with unmatched capabilities.”

The Phase 1 Enhancement will includethe integration of new weapons such asPaveway IV and the Enhanced GBU-16alongside work to integrate a Laser Desig-nator Pod (LDP) into Tranche 2 aircraft of

all four Partner Nations. The Human Machine Interface (HMI) will receive up-grades boosting the swing-role performanceand minimising the pilot’s workload in com-plex air warfare scenarios. Further extensionof the Multifunctional Information and Distribution System (MIDS) performance isa substantial contribution to this objective.

The new contract is also the enabler forthe separately contracted full digital inte-gration of the new IRIS-T air-to-air missile,in service with Germany, Italy and Spain.

Aloysius Rauen added: “The new func-tionalities are welcomed by the four PartnerAir Forces as they enable them to furtherextend the operational tasks of EurofighterTyphoon. Industry will therefore put everyeffort into meeting the required specifica-tions and schedules to provide first line performance to the airmen of the PartnerNations.”

Eurofighter Typhoon of Tranche 2 willreceive additional functionalities In thePhase 2 Enhancement. The Eurofighter con-sortium plans to start work on the respec-tive proposal in the second half of 2007,mainly focusing on the integration of newweapons including the standoff weaponsStorm Shadow and Taurus.

Dear Friends of Eurofighter Typhoon,

The first quarter of 2007 has been an aston-ishingly successful period for the EurofighterTyphoon programme. Coming on the back ofthe first flight of a Block 5 aircraft at the endof 2006, the new year kicked off with Type Acceptance of the Block 5 standard and the delivery of SS011 to the Spanish Air Force.

The first three months of 2007 have alsowitnessed the test fleet break the 5,000th flyinghour mark, the maiden flight of the first Eurofighter Typhoon bound for Austria, andthe conducting of a successful Meteor test campaign in Spain.

These events have been equalled by the contractual agreement of some extremely criti-cal issues. The most important was the contractfor developing new capabilities beyond Tranche1 which was signed at the end of March. Thiscontract lays out the way forward in introducingthe new functionalities that will enable the AirForces to make the best use of the operationalpotential of Eurofighter Typhoon in order tomeet their national requirements and theirobligations towards NATO.

An emerging success story can be found inthe logistic support and training area. The Air-crew Synthetic Training Aids (ASTA) team hasmade considerable progress and this effort wasrecognised by the Nations through the signa-ture of the PC7 document for the realignmentof the ASTA programme with the full backingof the Nations.

In logistics support, an agreement has beenreached on the PC5, PC6 and CP196 documentsafter very constructive discussions between industry and the customer. The achievementsof the Neuburg workshop have been carriedthrough 2007 with a very successful follow-onevent in Munich. The four Partner Nations,NETMA and the industrial consortium are fullydedicated to shape the support area to the AirForces’ needs. More availability at less cost isthe objective as eight units across Europe aretaking Eurofighter Typhoon to new operationallevels.

2007 will see the delivery of the first exportaircraft to the Austria. The Partner Air Forceswill also be grabbing the headlines as the oper-ational capabilities of the weapon system areconfirmed. As always, Eurofighter REVIEW willhave all the news!!

Enjoy the issue!

Your sincerely,

Aloysius RauenCEO Eurofighter GmbH

Aloysius RauenCEO Eurofighter GmbH

Green Light for New Eurofighter Typhoon Capabilities

Contracted Aircraft Enhancements

03 EditorialWelcome note from Aloysius Rauen, Chief Executive Officer

04 Exporting Unrivalled CapabilityEurofighter Typhoon moves closer to the Austrian Air Force

05 Delivering in Flight TestDeveloping future capabilities for Eurofighter Typhoon

06 Aero India 2007The campaign trail hits Bangalore

07 Sleek and EfficientNew organisational structure for the Programme

08 Programme Direction - Formulating the way ahead“Twice the availability at half the cost”

12 ASTA goes OperationalThe future of Training... Now!

14 Mission-capable PreparationsRamping up operations at Neuburg/Donau

18 Preparing for DeploymentRAF unveils first multi-role squadron

19 Building BlocksSwing-Role Type Acceptance for Eurofighter Typhoon

20 Forward Thinking Technology EJ200 Engine – Aiming for the Future

22 NewsLatest Developments

23 New-Look WebsiteOnline re-design for eurofighter.com

Eurofighter Review is published byEurofighter GmbH, PR & CommunicationsAm Söldnermoos 17, 85399 HallbergmoosTel: +49 (0) 811-80 1587

Editorial representativeWolfdietrich HoevelerVP PR & Communications

EditorPhillip Lee

PhotographyEurofighter GmbH, Eurofighter Partner Companies,Geoffrey Lee, Planefocus, Patrick Hoeveler

Design & Productionimages.art.design.Andreas Westphalwww.iad-design.de

Printed byESTA Druck GmbHwww.esta-druck.de

Eurofighter Review on the Internetwww.eurofighter.com

If you would like to request additional copies ofEurofighter Review, please contact the PR &Communications Department at Eurofighter GmbH

1811(F) Sqn stands up as

first multi-rolesquadron

Contents

1 - 2007 eurofighter review1 - 2007 eurofighter review - c o n t e n t s - - l a t e s t n e w s - e d i t o r i a l - 32

issue 1 - 2007 eurofighter review

� Exporting Capability

� Programme Way Ahead

� ASTA goes Operational

p r o g r a m m e n e w s a n d f e a t u r e s

Ramping up operations at Neuburg/Donau

Mission-capable Preparations

Cover picture shows a EurofighterTyphoon from Fighter Wing 74 onthe flight line at Neuburg/Donau

Photograph: Patrick Hoeveler

Eurofighter GmbH CEO and theNETMA GM agree new aicraftcapabilities

12ASTA deliversoperational training

1 - 2007 eurofighter review1 - 2007 eurofighter review - e x p o r t - - f l i g h t t e s t - 54

The first quarter of 2007 has seen both theindustrial consortium and the customerdemonstrate the ever-increasing capabilitiesof Eurofighter Typhoon. A week of trialsrunning across February and March wit-nessed the Royal Air Force conduct a seriesof Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile(ASRAAM) firings aimed at bringing theaircraft closer to assuming Quick ReactionAlert (QRA) responsibilities for the UnitedKingdom, scheduled for mid-2007. The ASRAAM firing was the first to be conductedby a front-line Royal Air Force EurofighterTyphoon.

Four sorties, flown over the Aberporthweapons range in Cardigan Bay, Wales, sawa total of four ASRAAM missiles successfullylaunched from 3(F) Squadron EurofighterTyphoons. Operating out of RAF Coningsby,the aircraft tracked and fired against flarepacks being towed by Mirach target drones.

Wing Commander Lol Bennett, OfficerCommanding 3(F) Squadron, commentedthat: “The first front-line firings of ASRAAMrepresent a significant milestone in the Typhoon force’s progress towards opera-tional deployment.”

Over in Spain, the flight test team atEADS CASA in mid-February reported a pro-gramme-first release of a GBU-10 air-to-sur-face weapon. Piloted by Alfonso de Castro,

two “cold” tests were carried out with In-strumented Production Aircraft Four (IPA4),to allow for final checks of the release criteria,before going for the “hot” run and store release from the right-hand centre-wing pylon. No snags were reported by the onboard instrumentation.

IPA4 was again on hand to deliver a fur-ther programme milestone when Captain

Carlos Esteban Pinilla, Eurofighter Typhoontest pilot at EADS CASA, took to the skiesover Morón to complete the 5,000th flighthour on behalf of the entire test fleet. Themilestone-achieving flight saw IPA4 under-take environmental data gathering with aMeteor air-to-air missile.

The integration of advanced weapons isset to become a major task as the focus ofthe test fleet evolves. By the end of April2007, work on a planned two evaluationcampaigns will have been conducted withthe new European Long Range Air-To-AirMissile, Meteor, following the release offunding from the customer.

The purpose of the two campaigns inSpain and Italy is to gather environmentaldata for the final design of the missile. Fiveflights with IPA4 of EADS CASA began on15 March in Morón, Spain, using the so-calledMeteor Environmental Data Gathering TestVehicle and Ground Handling Training Mis-siles and ended on 20 March. The aim wasto fly Meteor on the front and rear fuselagestations in order to collect data on how themissile responds in the vibration and loadenvironments. The final flight of the firstcampaign was flown with four Paveway IIand two AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles in ad-dition to the four Meteors.

The objective of the second campaign isalso environmental data gathering but, forthe first time, Meteor will fly on the out-board pylons of Eurofighter Typhoon.

The focus of these flights is to explore mis-sile reactions to flutter and vibration.

This second Meteor testing campaign isa risk reduction initiative for the projectedintegration of Meteor onto Eurofighter Typhoon. After completion of these series oftests, Meteor will have flown on all applicablestations having first flown on the aircraft inlate 2005.

The tasks of the test fleet will also lookto introduce new software to improve thecapability of sub-systems thus increasing

the overall weapon system performance.The work on the Main Development Contractmay be ending this year, but the four Nationteam involved in test and evaluation arestriving to introduce into service the capa-bilities that will maintain Eurofighter Typhoon’s position as the most advancedswing-role aircraft available.

Phillip Lee

The first Eurofighter Typhoon weaponsystem destined for an Export Nation tookoff for its first flight at EADS Military AirSystem’s Manching facility, Germany.AS001, the first of 18 aircraft to be deliv-ered by the Eurofighter consortium to theAustrian Air Force, completed its approxi-mately one hour maiden flight at the handsof experienced EADS test pilot, Chris Worn-ing. On landing, test pilot Worning com-mented: “The aircraft handled impeccablyas expected. The industrial consortium

behind this next generation aircraft have already delivered unrivalled capability tothe Partner Air Forces, and now Austria willbegin to realise the force-multiplying bene-fits of this world-class weapon system.”

During the flight, the aircraft was takenthrough a series of basic handling manoeu-vres before touching down just after middayat the test facility in Manching.

Speaking about the event, EurofighterGmbH CEO, Aloysius Rauen, commented:“The flight of AS001 as the first AustrianEurofighter Typhoon and the first exportEurofighter Typhoon, is a major milestone

Since deliveries of Eurofighter Typhoon tothe four Partner Nations began followingType Acceptance in June 2003, the core programme has been steadily gatheringpace. The milestone of 100 deliveries wasachieved in October 2006, the Tranche 2Supplement 3 contract was agreed at theend of 2004 and, in between, all manner ofcapability enhancements have been demon-strated by the test fleet. But, in the exportarena, despite being hailed as “marketleader” for the next five years by US ana-lysts Forecast International based on a 638aircraft order book plus the Government toGovernment collaboration on EurofighterTyphoon for the Royal Saudi Arabian AirForce and growing worldwide interest, tangible evidence of progress was scarce.As of 21 March 2007, that has all changed.

in the programme. This achievement is theresult of a successful cooperation of all Part-ner companies and suppliers, and demon-strates the ability of this international part-nership to deliver to contract specificationin Export.”

AS001 represents the last build standardof Tranche 1. As Austria is supported in theacceptance process by the German Ministryof Defence, the Austrian aircraft are tem-porarily adorned with German nationalmarkings and registration numbers over theoriginal Austrian Air Force designation(98+40 instead of 7L+WA).

The second aircraft for Austria, AS002,was rolled out only a few days prior to AS001getting airborne and is now undergoing final checks before engine runs and the addition of Air Force colour schemes to theaircraft.

The training simulator has been in-stalled at Zeltweg, the Main Operating Base

(MOB) of the Austrian Air Force EurofighterTyphoons, and first flights in the simulatorhave been achieved. This training device iscurrently undergoing an upgrade to thesoftware, allowing for a greater capability inaircrew training.

Phillip Lee

Take-off for the first Export Eurofighter Typhoon

Eurofighter Typhoon moves closer to the Austrian Air Force

Exporting Unrivalled Capability

Developing future capabilities for Eurofighter Typhoon

Delivering in Flight TestIPA4 at Morón, Spain, preparing forGBU-10 release

First RAFASRAAMrelease froma frontlineEurofighterTyphoon

Top: AS001 complets its maiden flightAbove: Roll-out of the first Austrian Eurofighter Typhooncomplete with Air Force markings

Final production is ongoing for the Austrian aircraft

AS001 in the paintshop prior to roll-out

IPA4 will carry out two Meteor campaigns

1 - 2007 eurofighter review1 - 2007 eurofighter review - e x h i b i t i o n s - - p r o g r a m m e - 76

The campaign trail hits Bangalore

Aero India 2007With the Indian authorities poised to release a Request for Proposal (RFP) for 126 Multi-Role Combat Aircraft, Aero India 2007 provided the Eurofighter consortium withthe unique opportunity to keep the focus of professional visitors on the outstandingcapabilities of Eurofighter Typhoon. With a wealth of key decision-makers in atten-dance, including influential figures from the India Air Force, the procurement organi-sations and from the national aerospace industry, the timing of the Eurofighter con-sortium’s first showing at the Bangalore-based exhibition couldn’t have been better.

Although no Eurofighter Typhoon aircraftwere available due to preparations for NATOassignments and daily operations, the pro-gramme presentation still featured plenty of attractions for the Indian hosts. The Eu-rofighter business stand carried India-spe-cific campaign messages with a clear focuson industrial partnership. This cooperativespirit was emphasised across a variety ofplatforms, not least with the strong showingfrom key people from the Eurofighter com-munity including, from industry, AloysiusRauen, CEO Eurofighter GmbH, Mike Rouse,

Group Marketing Director BAE Systems, Johann Heitzmann, CEO EADS Military AirSystems, and Hartmut Tenter, Managing Director Eurojet GmbH. Representationfrom the Partner Nations was also evident,with Alan Garwood, Head of the UnitedKingdom’s Defence Export Services Organi-sation (DESO) of the Ministry of Defence,General Klaus Peter Stieglitz, Chief of theGerman Air Force, and Dr. Klaus von Sperber,Director General German Ministry of Defence,all throwing their full support behind thecampaign efforts in Bangalore. Additionally,they all joined forces for a press conferencewhich attracted the prominent internationaland Indian media and lead to widespreadmedia coverage.

The group effort and team ethic was fur-ther highlighted with the additions to the

Air Marshal Major takes in the Eurofighter CockpitDemonstrator

Right: Air Marshal Nagalia, Deputy Chief of Staff

Below: Indian Minister of Defence, Shri A. K. Antony, visitsEurofighter Typhoon in Bangalore

Indian Air Force Chief, Air Marshal Tyagi received a detailed briefing

stand of the EJ200 engine and the CAESARe-scan radar models, on display alongsidethe permanent fixture of the EurofighterCockpit Demonstrator. Each feature wassupported by technical and marketing experts from the relevant partner of Eurojetand Selex.

The exhibition itself ran from 07–11 Feb-ruary and, over the course of the five days,the Eurofighter team received all the keydelegations. The Indian Minister of Defence,Shri A. K. Antony and his Director of GeneralAcquisition, Shri S. Banerjee, got a close-upview of Eurofighter Typhoon’s capabilitieson the Cockpit Demonstrator during theirguided visit. Air Force representation wasalso in attendance, with Air Marshal S. P.Tyagi, Chief of Staff of the Indian Air Forceand a member of the Indian customer com-munity who has flown in Eurofighter Typhoon,taking the opportunity to be briefed on air-craft capabilities.

As the fighter replacement competitionmoves into its final stages, the Eurofighterconsortium will, over the coming months,seek to maintain the excellent contacts thatwere established in Bangalore, through pre-sentations and attendance at key India con-ferences. The belief across the programmecommunity is that Eurofighter Typhoon isthe ‘best fit’ in terms of complying with therequirements and specifications of the IndianAir Force. Furthermore, with the consortiumboasting concrete political support for Indiaand important historical connections withthe Indian customer, the campaign effortsare firmly focussed on delivering unrivalledvalue in India.

Phillip Lee

Rao Interjit Singh, Minister of State and Defence

Business Support

COOProgrammes

B. Phillipson

COOCapabilities

M. de Mitri

CFO andCommercial

V. de la Vela

CEO

A. Rauen

Export Support

New organisational structure for the Programme

Sleek and Efficient

For several years, the Partner Nations andthe industrial consortium behind the Eu-rofighter Typhoon programme have calledfor a re-alignment of both the managementstructure and of the programme itself. Atthe start of 2003, the Eurofighter shareholdersAlenia Aeronautica, BAE Systems, EADSGermany and EADS CASA acted to strengthenthe role of Eurofighter GmbH as prime con-tractor in a truly collaborative programmebusiness. A basic element for this approachwas the initiative of the shareholders tocarefully transform the role of the Eurofight-er Partner Companies into one of major sub-contractors, accountable to EurofighterGmbH on performance, schedule adherenceand quality issues. This scheme was rolledout in May 2004 with a new management inEurofighter GmbH with more responsibilities.

The four Partner Nations welcomed themove, but emphasised that this step, fromtheir perspective, could only be the first ofmany in terms of progressing to an efficientmanagement structure. Their intention wasto speed up the work of the industrial consortium, but also to reduce the cost ofin-service support while aligning the in-ser-vice philosophy with reality, as the originalconcept had been conceived in the early1990s. This was based on the fact that theavailable budgets in the Nations were underheavy scrutiny and, at the same time, performance enhancements were on thewish list of the Air Forces. The integrationof a Laser Designator Pod in Block 5 aircraftof the Royal Air Force was one outstanding example. They therefore demanded the further empowerment of Eurofighter GmbH.

The intention of the Partner Nations andthe interests of the shareholder companiesculminated in the Future Protocols Document,signed by the so-called “Typhoon TigerTeam” in July 2006 at the Farnborough International airshow. This team wasformed by the National Armament Directorsand the Chief Executive Officers of theshareholder companies.

The message of the Typhoon Tiger Teamwas very clear: Commence the work

immediately, with first results to be visiblebeginning 2007. The industrial partnersworked towards this goal, presenting a pro-posal for the new programme managementstructure and methods for further empower-ing Eurofighter GmbH on time. The TyphoonTiger Team accepted the proposal and confirmed the implementation of the newstructure for 01 May 2007.

The basic principle of how EurofighterGmbH, in its role as contract owner, willmanage the programme business in futureis by paying the Eurofighter Partner Compa-nies based on delivery of performance according to their sub-contract obligations.As a fundamental prerequisite for this approach, a mechanism for risk-sharingamong the Shareholders has been agreedfor all areas including Development, Production and In Service Support.

The new company structure followsthese objectives, and is based on three prin-ciple functions: contract acquisition, contractnegotiation and contract delivery.

From the beginning of May 2007, the new Board of Management (BoM) will consist of:

• Aloysius Rauen, Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

• Brian Phillipson, Chief Operating Officer(COO) Programmes

• Maurizio de Mitri, Chief OperatingOfficer (COO) Capabilities

• Victor de la Vela ,Chief Financial Officer(CFO) also responsible for Commercial

The Board of Management will shrinkfrom ten to four members, while the Headsof the Business Support and Export Supportdepartments will participate in Manage-ment meetings, but will not hold full membership authority.

With these changes, the route to more efficiency is laid before the programme, tothe benefit of the customer and the product.

Wolfdietrich Hoeveler

New top level organisational structure at Eurofighter GmbH

1 - 2007 eurofighter review1 - 2007 eurofighter review - p r o g r a m m e - - p r o g r a m m e - 98

The Eurofighterprogramme requires a rethinkon traditionalpractices. In an in-terview with BrianPhillipson, ChiefOperating Officer(Programmes) atEurofighter GmbH,he explains his

vision on the way ahead, and how the pro-gramme is being reshaped to better copewith current and future demands.

With the new Eurofighter GmbH man-agement structure now ahead of us, whatare the long term opportunities and per-spectives that you envisage for the pro-gramme management on both the industryand the customer side?

From my point of view, programmes areliving things and you always need to adjustand evolve the organisation to match theprogramme’s current status. Over the lastyear or two, the programme has been goingthrough a huge change, and a lot of the con-tracted activities going on at present arevery different from a few years ago. Thatmeans there is a need to adjust the organi-sation to face up to current demand andnew challenges. That’s why changes havebeen made in Eurofighter’s organisationand management. More specifically, some of the objects of the changes are to betterequip industry to be able to deal with thecomplexity of the programme today and tomorrow.

Can you describe some of the key challengesfacing the programme?

The key challenges are dealing with thecomplexity of the programme and betterbalancing the various and evolving demandson us, as industry. In particular, we startedin the late 1980’s fundamentally as a devel-opment programme and have more recentlymoved into a manufacturing phase. However,today, In-Service issues are becoming in-creasingly more dominant within the

programme. There are a number of pressingquestions that we are in the process of an-swering. How do we improve affordability ofthe whole Eurofighter programme for ourcustomers, which includes the operatingand supporting of the in-service aircraftwhilst continuing key development and pro-duction activities? How do we successfullyprogress towards the authorisation ofTranche 3 and future export orders? Theseare the big challenges ahead of us today.

So far, we have followed parallel processesin development, production and in-servicesupport. As we look into future develop-ment, what will be the changes after themain development work ends?

There are a fundamental set of changesthat industry is now facing, but a couple ofcomments first. The Main DevelopmentContract (MDC) has, to a large extent, carriedmuch of the infrastructure we’ve needed onthe programme for the last 18 years or so.One consequence was that when Nationswanted some new capability, it was prettyeasy to add it into an ongoing developmentprogramme.

In the next 12 months, work covered underthat Development Contract will be comingto an end. Therefore, one of the issues wehave to deal with, is to agree with the Na-tions on what basis they want to go forwardin terms of engineering and support infra-structure. What we are seeing now is a period of much greater uncertainty in theNations’ requirements for changes to theaeroplane. Whilst minor changes are likelyto be fairly frequent and may well be requiredat fairly short-notice covering changes inweapons, communications and system inte-gration, the chances are that we won’t see alot of changes in the aerodynamics or struc-ture of the aeroplane. So as we come to theend of the original Development Contract,Industry and the Nations have to take deci-sions about what areas we need to maintainto provide support for the longer term, andin what areas we can afford to reduce capa-bilities to save costs.

Another set of changes, which is perhapsmore important, is improving the integra-tion of the programme. When the Nations

launched the current set of contracts, for ex-ample in support, they were quite keen tospecify what they wanted and to specify itseparately from what was going on in devel-opment and production. Inevitably, thatmeant that the contracts started to en-counter difficulties in maintaining step witheach other. We have contracts in the sup-port area, for example, which require us toundertake activities which are no longersensible given where the development pro-

gramme has now gone. Having to realign allthose contracts at the moment is a bit of aproblem for industry and for the Nations.

For the future, better alignment acrossthese issues is necessary. If the Nationswould like to develop a particular new capa-bility, we also need to decide what that en-tails, not just in line build, but in embodi-ment across the fleet of 150 or more aero-planes and in support. In the past, theNations had wanted to specify all this sepa-rately. Now, both parties agree that it mustbe specified in a more integrated and costeffective fashion. Many of the current con-tracts come to an end over the next 12 to 18months which gives us a good opportunityto develop and introduce a new contractualbasis for the future of the programme.

“Twice the availability at half the cost”

Programme Direction -Formulating the way ahead

The Air Forces have increasingly taken direct ownership of the programme and itis for industry to agree with them how bestto support it. Recently a workshop with theNations was held at Neuburg to define theway forward. What were the results of thisworkshop?

Neuburg was a very significant event forthe Nations and Partner Companies, as wellas for NETMA and Eurofighter. The reasonfor choosing this location was that we need-ed to think and do things rather differently.Instead of meeting at NETMA or at Euro-fighter in Hallbergmoos, we actually went toa Luftwaffe base in Southern Germany andused their facilities to hold our meeting. Being surrounded by Air Force personneland the noise of aeroplanes was exactly theright environment to think about the issuesthat we all needed to deal with. In the lightof an active in-service fleet, what we wantedto do was to face up to some of the demandsfor change on the programme.

Some of the issues were relatively sim-ple things. The Air Forces have been operat-ing the aeroplane now for more than threeyears. Some of them have 30 or more aero-planes in service and are flying them veryhard, whereas others have smaller fleetsand are operating them very differently. Allare gaining slightly different experiences,and more could be done in terms of sharingthose experiences. Whilst at Neuburg, thequestion was asked: how can we get betterat having each of the four Nations pool theirknowledge, their issues and their problems,so that we can better answer them? In theearly days of the programme, mechanismswere identified for doing that, but some ofthose mechanisms haven’t been fully imple-mented. Some of them maybe we didn’tquite get right, so now industry and thecustomer need to look at how it can be donebetter.

Are you referring to the InternationalWeapon System Support System (IWSSS)?

Exactly. The IWSSS is designed well andis the right solution, but what has not hap-pened thus far is properly energising thelinks through to the Air Forces and giving

them the understanding about how it allworks. So what we have had to do is to fixthat problem. We have not changed the con-cept of the IWSSS, but have highlighted theneed for the Air Forces to be more promi-nent and proactive in sharing their knowl-edge and experiences and their problems.

From another extreme, we looked muchharder at fundamentals about how we manage the integration of support and em-bodiment with development.

What does Neuburg mean for how we willcontract and manage differently in the fu-ture?

It was quite significant that the work-shop, backed at a very senior level by Gov-ernments and Industry, brought togetherrepresentatives from the four Nations andNETMA, the four Partner Companies andEurofighter GmbH. It was a communitywhich was very heavily influenced by theneed to think about support of the opera-tional aeroplane, but with adequate repre-sentation from the development and pro-curement side.

Following on from the Neuburg three-day workshop is a series of programmes ofwork looking in more detail at how the necessary changes can be defined and thenimplemented on the programme. We havealready had some benefit out of these workprogrammes that wouldn’t have been solvedif Neuburg hadn’t taken place. For example,one of the fastest things that we rectifiedwas to identify that when the Air Forceshad a problem with a replaceable piece ofequipment on an aircraft, where it was covered by the Industrial Exchange and Re-pair Service, the Air Force didn’t have themeans to simply fit a replacement equip-ment. This simple change would have al-lowed them to assess if the problem waswith the equipment or perhaps somethingdifferent. Oddly, the terms in the contractmeant they couldn’t do that without declar-ing the removed item defective and sendingit back to industry, even though in manycases it was actually serviceable. I think ittook about five days to solve this issue,modify the contract and give the Air Forcesthe means to pull the equipment out, re-

place it with another one and check forthemselves whether it was good or badwithout having to return the item to the Industry. In addition, within weeks we werealso able to arrange international meetingsbetween Air Force first line engineeringstaff to accelerate the process of learningfrom one another’s National Air Force experiences.

We also have much longer term activitieswhich may take 18 months or so to deliverbenefits, but we’ve now got the core team inplace who were at Neuburg, including sup-port from Nations and Partner Companiesas well as NETMA and Eurofighter. This is alarge ‘engine for change’ on the programme.

One other significance about Neuburg isthat there were a couple of themes thatwere really basic for us throughout - afford-ability and availability, and we coined aphrase that said what we wanted was“Twice the Availability at Half the Cost”.That was the sort of target that we were going for and we have already made consid-erable progress towards that.

At this stage in the programme, it is im-portant to look at what has been set up for

development and to see how it can be ad-justed for the in-service phase. The two ar-eas of providing more availability to the AirForce in-service fleets, and taking customerprogramme cost out, in total terms, are ex-actly the things that need to be done andthat’s the way we set the direction forNeuburg and beyond. I must emphasisehere that this is not just about industrycosts, it is about the customers’ total cost of

Weapon System Support is a key future challenge

Contract realignment now means that the AirForce ground crews have the ability to checkequipments on-base

Experience-Sharing amongst the Partner AirForces is critical to understanding how bestto offer support

1 - 2007 eurofighter review1 - 2007 eurofighter review - p r o g r a m m e - - p r o g r a m m e - 1110

procuring and maintaining the in-servicecapabilities that they require the Eurofight-er programme to deliver, for many years to come.

Are there more Neuburg-style workshopsplanned to measure what has been discussed against a set structure?

Although the original Neuburg eventwas billed as a one-off, NETMA and our-selves always knew that it was likely to bethe start of a process. As a result, we arenow looking at three-monthly review confer-ences where the international community is

brought back together, but, in-between, single working groups, made up of peoplefrom the conference and supplemented byothers, are working to deliver on the detail.We and NETMA are currently meeting aboutonce a month with the team leaders tomaintain progress and momentum.

Fleet upgrade is a current hot topic. Obvi-ously new standards and new capabilitieshave to be introduced. What is the way for-ward to an efficient and affordable upgrade?

When production commenced, there wasstill a huge amount of development work going on, and progressively the results wereintroduced into the build line in production‘blocks’. Therefore, the aeroplanes whichwere initially delivered into service are at anumber of different standards. One of thekey fleet wide activities we are currentlyundertaking is to bring them all up to onecommon standard, under a programmeknown as Retrofit R2. A number of aircraftwill be coming back out of the factories inthe next few weeks having completed R2,and this will be the start of the completeTranche 1 fleet being available at basicallythe same standard - a key requirement thatgreatly helps to drive effectiveness and efficiencies into the fleet.

The Tranche 2 aeroplanes, which arecurrently entering Final Assembly andwhich will start to be delivered next year,generate a second standard because, be-tween Tranche 1 and Tranche 2, there havebeen a number of changes. So, there arenow two baseline standards which will beoperated across the fleet. That’s really theright starting point for what we then needto do. The Air Forces would like to be able tohave a consistent standard in-service. Theymay have a Tranche 1 and a Tranche 2 standard, but they want to operate a wholesquadron or wing to a single standard, andnot go through bits and pieces of upgrading.

Therefore, once new features for the aero-plane become available, we’re now lookingat how to package them up, so we can allowthe Air Forces to roll them out and embodythem across their fleets in conjunction withroutine maintenance, and typically onsomething like a two-year upgrade cycle.

If there’s something a customer wants todeal with more urgently, perhaps due tonew operational needs, we will also have todeal with that particular requirement moreurgently. However, as more and more aero-planes enter service at an ever increasingnumber of bases, the logistics managementof the standards of the aeroplane increasesin complexity. The Air Forces have to con-trol it as it can’t be controlled by the indus-try, but we have to help make it as simpleand as manageable for them as possible.

They also want to minimise downtimeand aim to include all upgrades within themaintenance windows. What we’re movingto is an Air Force driven embodiment pro-gramme, which will typically be an upgradeapproximately every two years. This strate-gy will then be driven back into develop-ment and support, so that Industry canwork towards the Air Force’s needs forwhen they embody changes to their aero-planes. This is a major change from the lastfew years where it was development, and

not the in-service issues, driving the pro-gramme.

With the Air Forces now operating their aircraft there are a lot more opportunitiesfor international cooperation, keeping thespirit of partnership alive in the pro-gramme. Neuburg, you’ve mentioned, wasone example. Where could this lead to?

That point is one of a number of issueswhich drove the work through Neuburg and beyond. One of the things that we weresensing was that the Air Forces were developing some frustration with the inter-national aspects of the programme. As a national Air Force, you’re quite a long wayaway from the so called “bureaucracies” ofNETMA and Eurofighter.

If an aircraft develops a problem, all youcare about is getting your problem fixed. Itwas quite difficult for the Air Forces towork out how they could influence the pro-gramme to deal with their problems. Whattended to happen is they developed workingrelationships with their own national industries as it seemed to be a lot easier toring up the national Partner Company andsay, “I’ve got this problem – fix it for me!”Sometimes, this led to them relying on onlynational procedures to try to solve theirproblems, and it frequently meant they didnot readily access the real centres of indus-trial expertise or ensure that their experi-ences were being made available for thewider benefit of the programme.

The reality is that that’s the wrong ap-proach, because all four Nations will proba-bly end up with the same problem eventual-ly, and all four need it solving. If temporaryfixes are inserted on a national basis, itmight solve your problem today, however, itcould mean that the money is spent four oreven eight times. The reason is that by thetime national modifications have been intro-duced, they then have to be re-engineeredand made internationally available, and themoney could then have been spent twiceover in each Nation.

I think there is some recognition by theAir Forces that the only way forward is forthem to intensify working relationships andto try to identify what the strategic roadmapis for their aeroplanes. They can then usethe international machinery to give themrapid and cost effective responses.

The Nations do have different require-ments, and that means, for example, theyhave different priorities on how they intro-duce capabilities into service. Inevitably, we then have different demands from theNations and we have to be able to deal withthat through the international programmeand give them solutions quickly. If we donot, poor solutions will make configuration

control very difficult and industry and theNations will spend money many times overand that will actually slow the programmedown. Let’s get the machinery of the pro-gramme responsive, effective, and focussedon delivering what the Air Forces want. Ifthis can be achieved, and they can becoached on how to work the internationalprogramme effectively, then they won’tneed to do anything different.

The aircraft will be in service for at least30 years, so we need to look rather strategi-cally at future capabilities. Tranche 3 negotiations have started. Will they be a bitmore efficient than Tranche 2?

2004 and 2005 were a difficult couple ofyears in that there were some fairly big issues to be dealt with by the Nations. Au-thorisation of Tranche 2 came later thanplanned. The consequence was that we end-ed up spending money and were not gettingback benefits, and we have to avoid that onTranche 3. We hope that the Tranche 3 contract will be agreed in the next couple ofyears, and there’s a lot of activity now, withNETMA and the Nations, working towardsthat goal.

A second comment is that we’ve also haddifficulties over the last couple of years onsorting out what the next phase of develop-ment activity on the aeroplane will be.We’ve had lots of labels - EOC (enhancedoperational capability), FCP (future capabili-we have achieved contract signature on the next development phase, officially enti-tled “First Batch of Enhancements for theEurofighter.”

During the last few months, in agreeingthe scope of the first batch of enhancementswe’ve got through the difficult debate overwhere we go next with the aeroplane. Thosedebates were difficult for a number of reasons. For one, they were the first reallybig developments that came after the Main Development Contract, which raised ques-tions about what infrastructure industryneeded to maintain and how it should befunded, given that the vehicle of the MainDevelopment Contract was coming to a conclusion.

The second major issue has been how weprioritise the varying needs of the Nationsi.e. prioritising a national implementationover a fleet-wide implementation and not

causing disadvantages to some Nationswhile meeting the legitimate needs of others. Working out the logistics of this wasa new experience, or at least one that wehaven’t encountered on the programme forsome time.

Looking past the end of the Main Devel-opment Contract, the first phase of enhancements represent the Tranche 2 forward development programme for thenext five to six years. I believe we have alllearned from the mistakes on launch ofTranche 2, and everybody seems keen toavoid them on Tranche 3. The highest priority always was, and still is, to spendthe money on the capability of our productand not on bureaucracy or, for example, the inefficiencies which can result from inconsistent build rates.

The Nations are beginning to share theirstrategic views about where they want totake the aeroplanes over the next 20 yearsor so. What do you foresee in terms of capa-bility enhancements during this period?

In the 2012 timeframe, we will see morecapability on the aeroplane, more than wehave currently contracted. For example,with the Future Capability Programme, weare matching the hardware changes thattook place in Tranche 2 with the recent soft-ware upgrades and introducing a lot of newcapabilities at the same time.

Come 2012, there’s a whole batch of additional weapons which we still want tosee cleared onto the aeroplane, and that’sreally the next stage of contracting for further development. In particular, in refer-ence to the big stand-off weapons, Taurusand Storm Shadow, which some of our Nations currently operate from other air-craft platforms. Eventually they will wantEurofighter Typhoon to take on that role.

Another example is the new European Be-yond Visual Range Air Defence missile, theMETEOR, which is currently still in develop-ment. As that development completes, theNations will want us to clear it into serviceon Eurofighter Typhoon.

We’re actually right in the middle of dis-cussions with the Nations about what elsethey might want in those timeframes andwhat else they might want in Tranche 3. Atthe moment, the Nations seem very happywith the aeroplane and they are looking forrelatively small changes and new weapons.

However, there are areas where I thinkthe Nations probably will sign up to for fur-ther changes over the next year or so. Oneexample is the Radar. We actually have anincredibly capable radar on Eurofighter Typhoon. We opted for mechanically-scanned arrays because the early genera-tions of electronically-scanned arrays reallycouldn’t produce the power and flexibilitythat we’ve got with our mechanically-scanned array. But that’s changing. We’renow beginning to see second and third generation electronically-scanned arrayswhich are at least as good as, and betterthan, the mechanically-scanned array. Euroradar is already flying the CAESAR,which is an electronically-scanned array.We expect these kinds of enhancements tobe going onto the aeroplane in Tranche 3.Whether we will also introduce otherchange proposals that we have been study-ing in industry, such as conformal tanks,will be decided in talks with Nations overthe coming months.

Over the next 12 months, we plan toagree with the Nations a longer-term strategic roadmap which, although not setin concrete, will be the planning basisagainst which we can then take detailed de-cisions year-by-year. It will also characteriseany changes we make to the Tranche 3 aeroplane.

Personally, I expect the Tranche 3 aero-planes will look remarkably like Tranche 2.We seem to have got it pretty right in Tranche 2.

Interview by Phillip Lee

The Nations are beginning to share thestrategic views on where to go withEurofighter Typhoon

Integration of new weapons, for example Meteor, is part of future enhancement packages

1 - 2007 eurofighter review1 - 2007 eurofighter review - t r a i n i n g - - t r a i n i n g - 1312

The future of Training... Now!

ASTA goes Operational

Eurofighter GmbH, as Prime Contractor, isresponsible for both Programme Manage-ment and delivery of training and trainingsystems in support of the Eurofighter Typhoon weapon system. As such, a trainingand simulation partnership consortium hasbeen established based on the lead partnercompanies of the Eurofighter programme,Alenia Aeronautica, BAE Systems, EADSCASA and EADS in Germany. The fifth part-ner in the ASTA consortium is Eurofighter

Simulation SystemsGmbH (ESS), who itself draws on in-dustrial expertise insimulation technolo-gy from its share-holders CAE-D,Galileo, Indra, RDEand Thales.

Following the delivery and accep-tance of the Early

Cockpit Trainer (ECT) in March 2006 theASTA programme has continued at pacewith Full Mission Simulators (FMS) beingdelivered, installed and accepted by Nations. To date, eight ASTA simulatorshave been delivered and are in operation. In May, a further training device will behanded over to the Austrian Air Force, thefirst export customer, at their EurofighterTyphoon Main Operating Base at Zeltweg.

The Devices

The ASTA programme forms the core train-ing capability for all four Eurofighter Typhoon Partner Air Forces. The trainingpackage consists of two types of simulator:Cockpit Trainer / Interactive Pilot Station(CT/IPS) and Full Mission Simulator (FMS).These are supported by Database Genera-tion, Lesson Planner / Scenario Generatorand Debriefing Systems. Both device typesreplicate cockpit layout and fidelity.

To be able to pilot the world’s most advanced swing-role weapon system requires anunrivalled training capability. The Partner Air Forces of Germany, Italy, Spain and theUnited Kingdom are now plugged-in to an operational training programme that goesway beyond all of its predecessors. The Aircrew Synthetic Training Aids (ASTA) pro-gramme is now online.

The Cockpit Trainer comprises a fivechannel visual system and, in comparisonto the Full Mission Simulator, a simple In-structor Station (IS). It is dedicated mainlyto procedural and emergency training andpreparation for flight in the Full MissionSimulator. Additionally, it can be utilised asan Interactive Pilot Station (IPS) to partici-pate in networked missions, either as a supporting Eurofighter Typhoon or as an Alternate Aircraft (AAC).

The Full Mission Simulator offers a 13channel visual system plus the provision ofa six channel target projection system, giving an unparalleled 360º visual field ofview in a fully immersive environment. Itwill also be equipped with a motion cueingsystem and the full-flight gear of the pilotincluding the helmet-mounted displays ofthe Eurofighter Typhoon.

The current simulator functionalities areprioritised in order to deliver the Opera-tional Conversion Unit (OCU) training syllabus. This includes Conversion to Typeand Air-to-Air Training with the aim of providing a limited combat-ready qualifica-tion for the student.

Specific areas of training include multidevice networked missions, Basic AircraftHandling, Emergency Procedures, Instru-ment Flight Rules, Night Flying, Close For-mation and Air-to-Air Refuelling.

For Air-to-Air mission training, theRadar, employment of primary Air-to-Airweapons (AMRAAM, ASRAAM, AIM-9L) inboth Within Visual Range and Beyond Visual Range scenarios are utilised. This isagainst a variety of computer-generated interactive models.

Training Capability

Jose-Antonio Gutierrez a Spanish pilotwith 20 years experience of flying fast jets,now Head of the Operational Factors teamwithin the integration facility, stated that:

“The Partner Nations expect ASTA to allow an off-take of up to 30% of flight hoursin the real aircraft by simulator sorties. Inorder to realise this challenging objective,special attention is given to achieving veryhigh fidelity simulations in avionics, sen-sors and weapons, providing a new level oftactical training. ASTA has been designed toprovide full pilot immersion into the simula-tor sortie. In other words, the pilots feel asif at the controls of the real Eurofighter Typhoon. Under these conditions, traininggoes beyond procedural skills, and falls inthe region of sound decision-making, basedon situational awareness, inherent to tacti-cal missions”.

Beyond the capabilities of lower ordersimulators, the ASTA system will offer

training in complex tactical scenarios in fully networked environments. MultipleCockpit Trainer and Full Mission Simulatordevices can be linked to allow the pilots totrain in multi-ship environments in bothfriend and foe mode. Additionally, comput-er-generated forces of various aircraft typesgive definition to extremely complex tacti-cal training scenarios including Multifunc-tional Information and Distribution System(MIDS) communications. The feature ofelectronic warfare simulation complementsthe other components and allows for realis-tic training in the deployment of counter-measures. This simulator fidelity also provides the ability to train combat-readyskills, including tactical leadership trainingin complex scenarios and mission rehearsal.

Left: Full pilot immersion isoffered by the ASTA Full MissionSimulator

Below: The Eurofighter ASTATeam following acceptance ofsoftware load 1.0

King JuanCarlos

visited theASTA facilityat Manching

during histour in

January 2007

The ASTA cockpit trainer can be used for networked missions with other ASTA devices

UK: Coningsby 2 FMS & 1 CT/IPSGE: Laage 1 FMS & 1 CT/IPSIT: Grosseto* 2 FMS & 1 CT/IPSSP: Moron 1 FMS & 1 CT/IPSAU: Zeltweg 1 FMS

*CT/IPS installed at Ronchi facility.

To achieve the objective of a realistictraining mission, both aircraft systems andenvironment simulation must be taken intoaccount. Therefore, the ASTA devices aredesigned as hybrid simulator systems withvery high-fidelity aircraft and sensor simu-lations, as well as original re-hosted aircraftsoftware. A complex simulation of the nat-ural and tactical environment is implementedto ensure a similar behaviour of the ASTAdevices in comparison to the real world.

In order to cover training of the full mission cycle, from preparation to debrief-ing, the pilot can prepare their simulatormission parameters using the real aircraft’smission planning system and download crit-ical mission data via the same portable datastorage.

A dedicated team of personnel at eachairbase provide full time manning in orderto give support to, and obtain the maximumbenefit from, the ASTA training devices.This team work to ensure optimum opera-tion and maintenance, database generation,scenario preparation and training continu-ity within ASTA. The operational experi-ence with respect to availability of the devices so far is first-rate at above 95% withover 1,400 hours of training performed bythe German Air Force alone.

Now and the Future

The first ASTA devices have been in servicefor over 12 months with successful trainingbeing delivered at the German Air Force Operational Conversion Unit in Laage sinceMarch 2006.

Lieutenant Colonel Brandis, responsiblefor training pilots of Fighter Wing 73 “Stein-hoff” at Laage, stated that:

"The ASTA is being used successfully for training and the devices will form thebackbone of Eurofighter Typhoon pilottraining for many years to come. The in-crease in functionality and associated per-formance enhancements has enabled theGerman Air Force to expand the extent towhich the devices are utilised. Furtherplanned developments in functionality willprovide the Air Forces with a training capability second to none".

On 15 March 2007, the first “flight" ofthe Eurofighter Typhoon on the Full Mis-sion Simulator loaded with an Austria-spe-cific national database was performed. Thisis considered a major achievement and apre-requisite to the formal acceptance of theAustrian ASTA device planned for May 2007.

The delivery of software load 1.1 in April2007 enables the Operational ConversionUnits of the four Partner Air Forces to exe-cute an extended training syllabus. This

software standard will form the basis forEurofighter Typhoon pilot training acrossEurope for the next 12 months, with the final ASTA Tranche 1 software load to be-come available in 2008.

The second Tranche of ASTA devices,covering the production of devices for addi-tional Main Operating Bases, is currentlybeing negotiated with contract award target-ed for October 2007.

For further enquiries please contact :Andrew Leighton, ASTA Project Leader – Eurofighter GmbH

andrew.leighton@eurofighter.com

Current ASTA Locations

For the pilots of Fighter Wing 74, convertingto the next-generation Eurofighter Typhoonfrom the early-generation F-4 “Phantom” isa quantum leap in terms of learning requirements. So much so, in fact, that oncea pilot has successfully converted to Eu-rofighter Typhoon, he is unauthorised toswitch back to flying the F-4 “Phantom”.Only Colonel Klein, as Station Commanderover the two types at Neuburg/Donau, is afforded such a privilege. On the topic oftraining, Major Berthold Eibisch and MajorJürgen Schönhöfer cover the requirements.

All conversion training is conducted atLaage under the tutelage of Fighter Wing 73“Steinhoff”. The initial course runs for sixmonths. “We did academic training for approximately five weeks, followed by abouttwo weeks of simulator training” explainedMajor Eibisch. “On the simulators, you aretaken through the cockpit layout and thefunctionality of each of the switches and instruments. Ground handling makes upthe final stage before you’re given the firstflight in the twin seat Eurofighter Typhoon.”

As noted above, there is a world of differ-ence between the mechanical machine ofthe F-4 “Phantom” and the computer-guidedEurofighter Typhoon. Commenting on thisissue, Major Eibisch simply replies: “Thefirst flight in Eurofighter Typhoon was the

1 - 2007 eurofighter review1 - 2007 eurofighter review - i n s e r v i c e - - i n s e r v i c e - 1514

Eurofighter Typhoon will go on to QRA atNeuburg/Donau from January 2008

At peak, 35 separate construction sites will beworking to redevelop the Air Base

Ramping up operations at Neuburg/Donau

Mission-capablePreparations

are flying just two, with a maximum air-craft turnaround time of two hours. We arebuilding up flight experience with theweapon system. From next year, FighterWing 74 will go operational, and it’s impor-tant for me that we go about the prepara-tions in the right manner, bringing the air-craft up to a combat-ready standard, withthe support of industry, so that we are ableto achieve the 15-minute NATO requirementfor Quick Reaction Alert.”

Through the International Weapon Sys-tem Support System (IWSSS), industrial sup-port is provided by the EADS Military AirSystems teams at Manching. Located just 25kilometres from Neuburg, Colonel Kleincalls the accessibility to industrial expertise“a definite advantage”, while he is quick toemphasise the importance of “keeping thedialogue going” in order to solve the initialentry into service difficulties.

The German Air Force High Commandhave stated that the Eurofighter Typhoon isthe only MIDS-capable aircraft in their inventory. At Neuburg/Donau, work is beingdone in order to gain experience in network-centric operations. Several exercises withmulti-aircraft fleets have already been au-thorised by the senior figures in the AirForce, with several more to follow and, ac-cording to Colonel Klein, the German mili-tary is very much supportive of the promo-tion of a network-centric way of thinking.“The experience in the Air Force is, at themoment, not so high, but we are workinghard to explore the datalink capabilitiesthat an elitist MIDS team can give us now.

It is the direction that the German ArmedForces want to take and we in the Air Forcewant to be at the forefront with EurofighterTyphoon. I truly believe we are, but there’sstill work to be done.”

For future deployment operations, NATOwill be turning to Fighter Wing 74 for up tosix aircraft to participate in ready-to-deployforces. “We are constantly working towardsthe goal of being able to dedicate forces toNATO” explains Colonel Klein “but we willnot be ready to go into deployment in2008”. The timescale before a full deploy-ment from Neuburg/Donau can be realisedis two to three years, time in which ColonelKlein and his crews will seek to harness thecurrent and emerging capabilities of theweapon system. “Having the Defensive AidsSub-System (DASS) and the MIDS running,and the impending arrival of Block 5 air-craft are all extremely important forNeuburg/Donau.”

Progress is being made. Visibly, the baseis being reshaped to be able to meet the future demands that will be placed on it.Operationally, Fighter Wing 74 are flyinghard to ready Eurofighter Typhoon for itsfuture defence and combat duties. “Eu-rofighter City”, as it has become known on-base, is taking shape. As Colonel Klein em-phasises: “We are all going forward togeth-er. It’s working, and it’s going to be verygood. Nothing happens overnight, it willtake a few more years, which is not uncom-mon for complex systems such as Eurofight-er Typhoon. We are only at the beginning.”

It has been nine months since the first four Eurofighter Typhoons touched down atNeuburg/Donau, home to Fighter Wing 74 of the German Air Force. Even before theaircraft arrived, major redevelopment work had begun at the base two years in advance in order to boost the on-ground capabilities to match those of the new-gener-ation weapon system that will operate from there. With this regeneration work ongoing, and as more aircraft report to Neuburg/Donau for operational duties, Eu-rofighter REVIEW paid a visit to Fighter Wing 74 for this special report: Welcome to“Eurofighter City”!

Neuburg/Donau is the smallest NATO-oper-ational airbase in Europe. Although saidwith tongue firmly in cheek, the comment“wherever you stand you can see the fence”is not a million miles from the truth. Thesize, or lack of it, itself represents a majorlogistical challenge for the base plannersbecause, in order to upgrade the facilities,they first had to create space through demo-lition, all the while ensuring that the baseremained fully functional and capable ofmeeting NATO requirements on Quick Reac-tion Alert (QRA) duties. As explained byStation Commander, Colonel Uwe Klein, theworking conditions are tough. “It’s a triple

challenge. It’s a challenge to have a con-struction site on the smallest NATO base inEurope; it’s a challenge to continue operat-ing what is, in essence, a second-generationaircraft in the F-4 “Phantom” while simulta-neously bringing Eurofighter Typhoon to astate of combat-readiness; and the majorchallenge is coordinating all this with theminimum disruption to operations as is possible.”

When the sheer scale of the required redevelopment was realised, there weresuggestions of relocating Quick ReactionAlert responsibilities out of Neuburg/Donauuntil such time as the rebuilding work wascomplete. Thankfully, for the staff stationedthere, the decision was made to continueoperations as normal while making the ex-tra effort to compensate for any distur-bances caused by the construction. Accord-ing to Lieutenant Colonel Pascal May, every-one involved is pulling in the samedirection. “Operations at Neuburg/Donauwork fine. Maintaining the operational stateof the base, which comprises some 1,200force personnel and 400 civilians, with theintroduction of Eurofighter Typhoon hashad a tremendous impact on base itself andalso on the surrounding area. Everyone op-erates with the thought of ‘how can I workharder to accommodate the arrival of Eurofighter Typhoon?’.” Some of the moneypoured into Neuburg/Donau naturally fil-ters through to the local communities. TheArmy base near the town closed in1999, butthe morale around Neuburg was lifted onceit was known that Eurofighter Typhoonwould be coming and therefore ensuringthe continuation of the Squadron. “Wherepossible, we try to include the community

in a few events during the year and, suchhas been the success, we now have an unof-ficial fan club of aircraft enthusiasts whoeagerly turn up to watch the comings andgoings of daily operations” said LieutenantColonel May.

At its peak, the regeneration of the basewill see as many as 35 separate construc-tion sites. Roughly 100 million Euro is to beinvested in the new infrastructure providingthe aircrews and ground personnel withstate-of-the-art facilities. The Squadronbuilding, scheduled for completion beforethe end of the year, will be the Centre ofWing Operations and, as the F-4 “Phantom”will only begin the phase-out procedurefrom January 2008, the operations of boththe F-4 and Eurofighter Typhoon squadronswill be directed from the same facility, thefirst German Air Force base to employ thisway of working. The F-4 “Phantom” aircraftand their crews are to be relocated toWittmund, Northwest Germany, which willbe the only base still operating the typeonce the final F-4 leaves Neuburg.

Other ongoing or planned building pro-jects include the modernisation of the on-base emergency services and the con-struction of a new highly-sophisticated con-trol tower. However, the introduction of Eurofighter Typhoon has resulted in workthat, until flying operations with the newweapon system began, hadn’t been consid-ered as necessary. For example, the heightof the mounds of protective earth surround-ing the “last chance position”, the section ofthe flight apron where the fully-armed aircraft undergo final checks before take-offclearance, had to be increased to cope withthe size difference between the F-4 “Phan-tom” and Eurofighter Typhoon, referring tothe difference in height at which theweapons are carried onboard the two air-craft. The “last chance position” is a stan-dard Air Force requirement and the originalbarriers offered the adjacent buildings noprotection from potentially misfiredweapons carried by Eurofighter Typhoon asthey were initially installed to only containthe threat posed by missiles onboard thesmaller F-4 “Phantom”.

The evolving infrastructure, however, isonly half of the overall picture. Neuburg/Donau is still, as highlighted, a fully opera-tional military base with NATO responsibili-ties. The timetable for Eurofighter Typhoonto assume Quick Reaction Alert duties fromthe F-4 “Phantom” begins in January 2008,and all flying sorties are working towardsadhering to this schedule. “The aim is to operate four flying periods per day” ex-plains Colonel Klein. “At the moment, we

From the classroom to the skies

Conversion to Type

continued next page

ship will be defending.”The introduction of Eurofighter Typhoon in-to Fighter Wing 74 has also meant a radicalprocedural shake-up for the ground person-nel charged with maintaining the aircraft toa mission-ready standard. Until the last F-4“Phantom” departs for Wittmund, and withboth aircraft types placing separate and dif-fering demands on the engineers, the teamsare under pressure to overcome this logisti-cal challenge. But overcoming it they are.

“It’s a huge change from the F-4 “Phan-tom” to the Eurofighter Typhoon, especiallywith the high levels of computerisation”

explains Technical Sergeant MichaelSchmauser. “Working with the new aircraftis all about gaining experience, and lookingto improve procedures for the future.”

A huge amount of time and money hasbeen invested in not only readjusting theexisting maintenance hall and the HardenedAir Shelters (HAS) in anticipation of the arrival of Eurofighter Typhoon, but also inthe construction of a brand new facilitywhich, when complete, will be able to housedouble the amount of aircraft as the currenthall. At the moment, all aircraft servicingon both types is conducted in the originalreadjusted buildings and, with a bit of initiative, the engineering teams are manag-ing the logistics of maintaining two aircrafttypes in a hall that is formatted to fit Eurofighter Typhoon. “There is no obstruc-tion as we’ve set the hall in such a way that

we can put each aircraft on their ‘parkingspaces’, and it has worked out” claims Tech-nical Sergeant Schmauser. “Also, the im-provements to the shelters have opened upmore possibilities to complete a lot of thework in there.”

The new facility will signal the start ofan exciting new phase for the maintenancecrews, even if a sentimental value is at-tached to the older working area. TechnicalSergeant Schmauser reflects on this, saying:“I’ve grown up with this hall. It’s where I’veseen fighter aircraft for the first time. Butnow I’ve been to Laage, where one hall con-

tains 12 – 14 aircraft, it’s interesting and Iwonder how it will work in there. We willhave the possibility to fully use the re-sources of the aircraft and its material,while working in the same house will facili-tate the communication and logistics between the two groups.”

It is early days for the Wing and they arenot entirely without teething problems. Inadequate tooling is testing the resource-fulness of the engineers, but workaroundsolutions are being formed through innova-tion. “Sometimes we need to build specialtools, which requires creativity” explainsTechnical Sergeant Schmauser. “This is anadvantage for young soldiers as they havethe opportunity to contribute. On the F-4“Phantom”, there is a limitation as there arefew opportunities for new developments,but on the Eurofighter Typhoon, they have

But does it hurt? “Everybody has differentsymptoms – pins and needles, discomfort in the arms or neck, but normally we havetwo or three days of ‘g’ training which isenough time to find a technique which suitsyou. But ‘g’ doesn’t hurt” he adds, “you justblack out!”

Since qualifying as a single-seat pilotand as a pilot instructor, Major Eibisch isheavily involved in the mission rehearsalflying out of Neuburg/Donau. With QuickReaction Alert duties on the horizon, he isincreasingly working towards improving thetactical capabilities of the squadron in a variety of threatening situations. MajorEibisch explains: “In today’s mission, wewill be flying 2v1 short-range set-ups. The bandit will be trying to attack us in avery short-range environment and the two-

1 - 2007 eurofighter review1 - 2007 eurofighter review - i n s e r v i c e - - i n s e r v i c e - 1716

says Major Schönhöfer. Each pilot is placedinto a rotating device which generates ex-treme centrifugal forces equivalent to the‘g’ pressures experienced in flight. Thequick onset rate, up to six ‘g’ per second,provides the ultimate test in terms of pilotendurance, but the pilots are aided in thetrials through learning to work with the anti-‘g’ suits, either the Aircrew EquipmentAssembly (AEA) or the Libelle, both ofwhich are designed to protect against loss ofconsciousness. “Up to now, I have onlyworked with the AEA. As the ‘g’ levels in-crease, the suit inflates to squeeze yourlegs, then your back and stomach, and thenputs pressure into your breathing” explainsMajor Schönhöfer. “Building up this pres-sure helps prevent the blood going into yourlegs and maintains your conscious state.”

When complete, the new maintenance hall will be able to house up to 12 aircraft

The anti-‘g’ suit is essential for high ‘g’ operations

the chance to contribute immensely. This ishighly motivating and the visible evidenceof positive change is extremely rewarding.”The engineer was quick to add that theseinventions are no cause for concern as, before use on the aircraft, they are requiredto be officially accepted and registered ontothe tool lists.

All Eurofighter Typhoon ground crewtraining is carried out at the German AirForce Technical School at Kaufbeuren. Although the courses are conducted in Ger-man, all technical documentation and man-uals are in English, often with abbrevia-tions, which can raise moments of doubtwithin the servicing teams. “Every instruc-tion is in English, but sometimes there canbe ten abbreviations in succession, all justlike the one before it, but they all meansomething completely different” explainsTechnical Sergeant Schmauser. “But we become more and more experienced everyday.”

But support is on hand. All the engi-neers from Neuburg/Donau volunteered totake part in an experience-sharing trip toLaage, to talk to the service personnel ofFighter Wing 73 and establish effectivecommunication across the Squadrons. “Thesupport from Laage is working really well”says Technical Sergeant Schmauser, adding:“There are friendships emerging where weknow we can pick up the telephone andsolve problems immediately. This worksperfectly.”

Industrial support from EADS MilitaryAir Systems is also a key factor in knowl-edge sharing. Engineering staff fromManching have regularly visited theNeuburg/Donau workshops to offer adviceand tips in support of Fighter Wing 74.“They didn’t keep anything secret” explainsTechnical Sergeant Schmauser. “They justsaid ‘you need to know this, you need tocheck this and here’s how it should work’.”

Mission training is intensifying as QRA duties approach

realisation of why I joined the Air Force!The F-4 cockpit is very crowded, due to theaddition of new equipment over the years,combined with a limited view. The Euro-fighter Typhoon cockpit is very ergonomi-cally built, from the Head-up Display (HUD)to the outside view. For an F-4 flier, it’s the perfect cockpit environment.”

With the Aircrew Synthetic TrainingAids (ASTA) programme now online andconsistently delivering hardware and soft-ware to the Partner Air Forces, the trainingdevices will play an important role in main-taining weapon system knowledge duringthe break between flying courses. “I’veworked on all the simulators at Laage” explains Major Jürgen Schönhöfer. “Here atNeuburg/Donau, we have an Interim Train-ing Device (ITD), which we are using onlyuntil the ASTA building and facilities arecomplete, and it helps to get in some ITDflying time before my next course starts inMay.” As the ASTA programme expands incapacity, Fighter Wing 74 will take deliveryof a Full Mission Simulator (FMS) and a Eurofighter Cockpit Trainer (ECT) which,once operational, will allow the Neuburg/Donau crews to network with their counter-parts at Laage for combined exercise training.

As Eurofighter Typhoon is designed tooperate at the extremes of the flight enve-lope, the pilots themselves must also be con-ditioned to cope with the stresses of weaponsystem operation at nine ‘g’. The majority ofF-4 “Phantom” pilots will already have expe-rienced six or seven times the force of gravi-ty, but Eurofighter Typhoon pilots are ex-pected to absorb much more. “The aim ofthe ‘g’ training is to hit nine ‘g’ and sustainit for 15 seconds. Then you are qualified”

Weapon system maintenance at Neuburg/Donau

Engineering Solutions

Working with Eurofighter Typhoon is about gaining experiancefor the Fighter Wing 74 maintenance crews

1 - 2007 eurofighter review1 - 2007 eurofighter review - s q u a d r o n - - b l o c k 5 - 19

As Eurofighter Typhoon advances ontoQuick Reaction Alert (QRA) duties acrossEurope, becoming the continent’s premierair defence platform, the Royal Air Force areleading the programme into a combat erawith the announcement that the aircraft isbeing readied for deployment to one of theworld’s most fierce war zones.

The Stand-Up Parade of 11(F) Squadron,on 30 March at RAF Coningsby, signals thestart of the Air Force’s efforts to harnessthe weapon system’s air-to-ground capabili-ties. As the eighth Partner Air Force unit totake delivery of Eurofighter Typhoon, andthe second operational squadron of the Roy-al Air Force following the 2006 formation of3(F) Sqn, 11(F) Sqn are tasked with realis-ing the aircraft’s multi-role potential andbringing it up to a deployable level. Speaking at the ceremony, Wing Comman-der Gavin Parker stated: “We plan to haveall pilots fully qualified in both air defenceand air-to-ground roles by 01 July 2008.

18

RAF unveils first multi-role squadron

Preparing for DeploymentSwing-Role Type Acceptance for Eurofighter Typhoon

Building Blocks

Top: 11(F) Sqn will work towards Multi-Roledeployment

Far left: Eurofighter Typhoon in 11(F) Sqn markings

Left: 11(F) Sqn are beginning a new chapter withEurofighter Typhoon

SS011 achieved first flight in December 2006 at Morón, Spain

The fully-retractablyrefuellingprobe is auniquefeature ofthe aircraft

SS011 was the first Block 5Eurofighter Typhoon delivered to aPartner Air Force

Eurofighter Typhoon - a weapon systemwith an inherent built-in capacity forgrowth. In line with the principle of intro-ducing step-increases to the aircraft’s capa-bilities, the Eurofighter Consortium havedelivered the first Block 5 standard Eurofighter Typhoon to a customer Nationfollowing the arrival of SS011 into the ranks of the Spanish Air Force. This achievementfollows international Type Acceptance ofthe Block 5 standard, granted on 15 Febru-ary 2007.

Block 5 represents the highest capabilitystandard to date, and will be the benchmarkto which all earlier Eurofighter Typhoonsare brought up to through the Retrofit R2programme, currently ongoing across thefour Partner Air Forces. In addition, the enhanced ground equipment for use withthe new aircraft standard has been clearedfor use, including a more capable version of the Ground Support System.

In terms of capabilities, the Block 5package starts the evolution of EurofighterTyphoon into the full swing-role aircraft itwas designed to be. The features that willenhance air-to-surface operations includethe software for carefree handling, Disorien-tation Recovery Facility (DRF) and autopilot

capabilities for air-to-surface configurations.As a result of the commencement of heavyloads testing across the programme in2006, the Block 5 Eurofighter Typhoon willbe equipped with the Paveway II and GBU-16 laser-guided bombs. External fuel tanks,for increased range, are certified for super-sonic flight while “wet” air-to-air refuelling,with the unique fully-retractable refuellingprobe, is cleared for all specified customerTanker types, including “buddy-buddy” refuelling from a Tornado aircraft. Addition-ally, the Mauser cannon has received certi-fication for air-to-ground operation.

The sensor fusion capability has beengiven a boost with software packages de-signed to increase the air-to-surface abilityof the radar. Additionally, Block 5 providesthe aircraft with the full Direct Voice Input(DVI) and defensive countermeasures including automatic Chaff and Flare dis-pensing as part of the Defensive Aids Sub-System (DASS).

Eurofighter Typhoon’s features in its pri-mary air-to-air role have been further en-hanced with full carefree handling, and fir-ing certification across the entire flight en-velope for the cannon, AMRAAM, ASRAAM,IRIS-T and AIM-9L air-to-air missiles.

The ever-increasing maturity of theweapon system is vitally important for thesuccess in the export market. The AustrianAir Force, under the terms of their contractfor the purchase of 18 aircraft, will take delivery of aircraft at the baseline standardof Block 5. Additionally, the promise of aswing-role capability has attracted a wealthof interest across the world, which has leadthe analysts at Forecast International to declare Eurofighter Typhoon as the marketleader for the next five years.

Phillip Lee

We will be prepared and ready to deploy toAfghanistan next year. It has not beentimetabled, but I expect that when we areprepared, we will go.”

The acceleration towards multi-role oper-ations follows the 2006 signature of the“Austere Capabilities” contract enabling the

The Royal Air Force Number11(F) Squadron was formed atNetheravon in February 1915 asthe first Royal Flying Corpssquadron specifically taskedwith fighter duties, soon deploy-ing to France, and then to Germany as part of the Royal

Air Force of the Rhine.Between the wars, 11(F) Sqn flew a vari-

ety of aircraft before departing the UK forIndia’s North West Frontier in 1928, and didnot return until it was reformed at RAFLeuchars in 1967.

In the intervening years, the unit servedin India and briefly in Singapore. Duringthe Second World War years, the squadronmoved frequently, serving with distinctionin Egypt, Greece, Crete, Palestine and Iraq,and then on to Ceylon to defend the islandfrom Japanese Carrier forces. With theJapanese surrender, the squadron, now withSpitfires, moved to Malaya and then toJapan, as part of the Occupation Forces,where it remained until disbanding in 1948.

Later the same year, it reformed in Germany flying Mosquitoes, Vampires, Ven-oms, Meteor night fighters and Javelins un-

til 1966. Returning to the UK, 11(F)Squadron stood up at Leuchars in 1967 withLightnings, becoming the last unit to flythese aircraft in 1988.

Tornado F3s followed at RAF Leeming,North Yorkshire, with the squadron deploy-ing on operations to the Middle East and theBalkans until it was disbanded once more in 2005. Now the squadron is beginning anew chapter with the Eurofighter Typhoon.

British Crown Copyright/MOD, Reproduced with

the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty´s

Stationery Office

integration of a laser designator pod ontoRoyal Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons. As this work continues on the side of the industrial consortium, the Royal Air Forcehas announced plans to begin its own air-to-ground weapons trials. These will com-mence with inert bomb drops at UnitedKingdom test facilities scheduled for beforethe end of the year, followed by a live firing deployment to ranges in the UnitedStates in 2008. 11(F) Sqn will be based atRAF Coningsby.

11(F) Squadron History

1 - 2007 eurofighter review1 - 2007 eurofighter review - e u r o j e t - - e u r o j e t - 2120

The EJ200 engine powering the Eurofighter Typhoon occupies an enviable position onthe world stage. Not only is it the largest new generation military engine programmecurrently in production with more than 1,400 engines on order, but the engine itselfdelivers unprecedented levels of performance, reliability and operational life. TheEJ200 is the benchmark military engine.

EJ200 Engine – Aiming for the Future

Forward Thinking Technology combustion, advanced cooling and sealingtechnologies, latest materials and manufac-turing techniques. Successful integration of these technologies is another key factorin the success of the product.

What can EUROJET do to maintain theleadership of the EJ200 in the fighterengine market in the future?

EUROJET is currently exploring possible enhancements and believes that there is agood opportunity for continuing investmentin engine technology. The performance of amilitary aircraft engine remains a signifi-cant factor in overall operational effective-ness, availability and life cycle costs of theweapon system and continuous improve-ment must be a consideration in enhancingthat weapon system. Of course, it is not justabout thrust, which is instantly recognis-able to any pilot, but also fuel burn (influ-encing reach, persistence, operationalcosts), all aspects of supportability andcomponent life (availability and cost of ownership).

The introduction of the Digital EngineControl and Monitoring Unit (DECMU) intoTranche 2 engines represents the first step in product development from the base-line engine. Deliveries of this engine stan-dard will start in the first half of 2007. EUROJET had successfully delivered all 363Tranche 1 engines to schedule by the end of 2006.

For the future, as well as for existingEJ200 engines, there are opportunities forfurther, more significant changes to the engine design and technology, offering evengreater benefits to the end user. Areas ofenhancement being explored by EUROJETinclude Low Pressure / High Pressure Com-pressor aero improvements for increased efficiency and operational margins (givingreduced fuel burn and extended installed engine life), new hot end cooling conceptsand materials for increased temperature

delivers maximum performance with thesimplest engine architecture (offering relia-bility and maintainability benefits), madepossible only through the application of ad-vanced technologies and innovative design.None of this would have been possible with-out investment in research and technologydemonstration programmes, underpinningand reducing the risk in the developmentprogramme for the EJ200.

The technology already embodied in theEJ200 engine is highly advanced, with features such as 3D blading, compressorblisks, single crystal turbines, airspray

capability (giving performance and life im-provements), further advances in controland health monitoring capabilities (offeringoperational benefits ranging from perfor-mance optimisation to prognostics) and advanced nozzle concepts targeting enhancedsystem flexibility.

It is clear though that new technologydevelopment will need to be backed up by arobust business case demonstrating that thebenefits outweigh the development pro-gramme costs and that these concepts canbe matured in time to meet programme requirements. The ability to retrofit newtechnologies to the Tranche 1 and Tranche2 engines is an important factor.

Although the focus and drive for changewill continue to be the core programme,careful attention must also be paid to thecompetitiveness of the EJ200 for export andnew business opportunities. Other militaryengines in the fighter engine market willundergo upgrades and investments in newtechnology to ensure their market position.Therefore, it will require dedication andcommitment from Industry and Govern-ments and a close cooperation with the Eurofighter consortium to maintain theleading position of the EJ200 into the future.

Such a position is not easily attained.The EJ200 is a successful product becauseof the joint competences of four leadingaero-engine companies (Avio, ITP, MTUAero Engines and Rolls-Royce) and key deci-sions made early in the programme i.e. thechoice of engine cycle, the robust designphilosophy, intelligent selection and appli-cation of emerging technologies. The goalwas to develop an engine that not only satis-fied highly demanding multi-mission re-quirements but one that would also signifi-cantly drive down life cycle costs comparedto previous generation engines. The EJ200

Hartmut Tenter, EUROJET Managing Director, stated: ‘‘It is important that theEJ200 engine delights our customers, notonly today, but far into the future and thisaspect requires continual review. European

industries have demonstrated that they can develop world-beating technology andgenerate win-win solutions for all parties”.

EUROJET looks forward to working withthe customer and the Eurofighter consor-tium to explore opportunities for further enhancements.

Mark S. Thomas / Katarina Elbogen

The EJ200 is the largest new generation engine programme

Top: EJ200 engines in afterburner modeBelow: Maintaining the leading position of the EJ200 will require close cooperation with the customer

1 - 2007 eurofighter review1 - 2007 eurofighter review - n e w s - - m u l t i m e d i a - 2322

al Highness, himself an enthusiastic pilot,took the opportunity to get behind the controls of the Aircrew Synthetic TrainingAids (ASTA) cockpit simulator, experiencingfirst-hand the methods employed to trainthe aircrews of the Partner Nations. TheRoyal Tour concluded with a visit to theMesserschmitt Hangar, allowing HisMajesty a glance back into a bygone time ofaviation with the historical aircraft that are on display there.

On 07 February, the red carpet was rolledout for the arrival of the most prominent ofSpanish guests. Escorted by Dr. EdmundStoiber, Prime Minster of Bavaria, and Dr.Manfred Bischoff, Chairman of EADS, HisMajesty King Juan Carlos I paid a visit tothe Eurofighter Typhoon final assembly facilities of EADS Military Air Systems inManching.

Following a comprehensive briefing onEADS and the Manching activities, His Roy-

His Majesty Juan Carlos visits Manching

Eurofighter and the King

Future capabilities is a current “hot topic”within the consortium and customer com-munities. The test fleet have made giantstrides in demonstrating that EurofighterTyphoon will be capable to meet head-on all

predicted and emerging threats. In earlyApril, Development Aircraft Five (DA5) wasset to take off from EADS Military Air Sys-tems’ Manching facility, Germany, for thefirst of a scheduled three flights to gatherdata on multiple targets. The target aircraftwere provided by the German OperationalTest Centre WTD 61 at Manching. The accu-mulated data will be assessed and evaluatedon ground rigs of the Euroradar consortium.

DA5 had previously been used for flighttesting the Captor radar, and had alreadycompleted all of its assigned tasks accord-ing to the Main Development Contract. Af-ter a short period of negotiations, Eurofight-er GmbH and the NATO Eurofighter Torna-do Management Agency (NETMA)contractually agreed to use DA5 for this se-ries of antenna flights. Funding was provid-ed by the German Procurement Agency

Eurofighter Typhoon flies the E-scan antenna

Future Radar Trials

The Eurofighter Typhoon will be placednext to the first fast jet of the German AirForce, the F-86 Sabre, which was opera-tional during the 1950s, to be able to showthe development in capability of militaryaircraft. It is also hoped that, at some point,a retired Tornado weapon system will jointhese on display in Oberschleißheim.

As well as the fast jets, the museum alsoplans to showcase the EJ200 and RB199 aircraft engines in close proximity to theDA1, in addition to the IRIS-T andSidewinder short-range air-to-air missilesand the AMRAAM medium-range missile.Also, the Libelle pilot suit from the firmAutoflug, qualified for use with highly-agileaircraft in order to offset the effects of extreme ‘g’ pressures, is to be featured withthe aircraft.

Development Aircraft One (DA1) last flew in December 2005. On 15 March 2007, thefirst prototype of the Eurofighter Typhoonprogramme made one last journey, albeit byroad, from EADS Military Air Systems’Manching site to the Aerospace unit of Mu-nich’s Deutsches Museum in Ober-schleißheim, Germany.

The transportation was organised by theTest Centre at Manching (WTD 61) and theProcurement Department of the GermanMinistry of Defence. The aircraft was trans-ferred with use of a heavy-goods, wide-loadtransport.

DA1 makes its final journey

Museum Attraction

EdmundStoiber

greets KingJuan Carlos

at EADSManching

4° Stormoin AIM-9L firing

exercises

King Juan Carlos’ appearance in front of the assembled German and Spanish me-dia at Manching was part of a two-day engagement in Germany that also madestops in Berlin and Baden Baden. On his departure from Manching, Juan Carlos re-ceived a pilot’s jacket from Dr. Bischoff anda Eurofighter Typhoon model, presented tohim by a group of EADS trainees.

The new antenna emphasises the pushfor continuous capability enhancement inthe Eurofighter programme and could beavailable for Tranche 3 or as a retrofit inTranche 2 aircraft. While maintaining theexcellent performance features of the Captor radar, the new antenna provides a significant reduction in operating costs.

BWB through NETMA and, based on thiscontract, Eurofighter GmbH drove the inter-national clearance process and resolved alllife extension issues on certain componentsin DA5 together with EADS Military AirSystems. Support throughout the durationof the trials is to be provided by EADS and Eurojet.

Online re-design for eurofighter.com

New-Look Website

In keeping with the ‘white line’ approachadopted by the current Eurofighter Typhoonpublicity material, the www.eurofighter.comwebsite has undergone a re-vamping of itsown.

Designed and developed by Open Plat-form, an Edinburgh-based digital communi-cations company, this new makeover for thewebsite displays the most sweeping changesyet to the online face of the programme.Central to the new design, and the moststriking adaptation, is the switch from blueto white to match other external presenta-tions and branding. The website navigationhas been considerably upgraded. A muchslicker and more efficient format in negoti-ating through the menus and content pageshas been introduced, founded on a “one-click” principle that aims to provide the visitor with their desired information morerapidly.

Aesthetics aside, the most daunting chal-lenge that Open Platform faced was thecomplete rebuilding of the Media Library.As the most comprehensive catalogue of Eurofighter Typhoon imagery available onthe world wide web, and with over 1.4mil-lion pictures downloaded since initiallaunch, it is vital that that the implementedchanges not only maintain its own highstandards but improve on them. The resultis a step forward on the previous drop-downmenus to a powerful and more favourablekeyword search facility that stays verymuch within the one-click philosophy. Eachimage is also fitted with tags, a grouping ofsingle words that help identify the contentof the image and which work to complementthe picture caption. The picture descrip-tions and corresponding tags work in tan-dem to enhance the potency of the searchengine. Locating that specific EurofighterTyphoon image has never been easier. Addi-tionally, for those visitors wishing to know

what everyone else is looking for, the ‘mostpopular tags’ function offers a fascinatinginsight into the favoured search criteria ofEurofighter Typhoon fanatics everywhere.

Speaking about the opportunity to rede-velop the Eurofighter Typhoon website,Tony McKenzie, Managing Director at OpenPlatform, commented: “The team at OpenPlatform is delighted to be involved in theredesign and improvement programme forthe Eurofighter Typhoon website.

I don’t think any of us anticipated howpopular both the website and the media library would become.

The new website is a slick, cleandesign with improvements to thenavigation and the media library

The new site is being developed to com-ply with web standards and a particular effort and focus is being placed on makingthe website more accessible to visually impaired users.”

More new and exciting features and interactive elements are to be added to the Eurofighter Typhoon website over the com-ing months. Log on to keep up to date withall future enhancements!

Tony McKenzie, MD Open Platform

Trials withthe E-ScanRadar will

begin withDA5

issue 1 - 2007 eurofighter review

� Exporting Capability

� Programme Way Ahead

� ASTA goes Operational

p r o g r a m m e n e w s a n d f e a t u r e s

Ramping up operations at Neuburg/Donau

Mission-capable Preparations

At the forefront of single seat testing and development, InstrumentedProduction Aircraft Four (IPA4) is pushed hard in striving towards certi-fication for the next generation of weapon system capabilities.

The pictures here show IPA4 during GBU-10 air-to-surface weaponrelease trials in Morón, Spain. For more details on this and other testcampaigns, turn to page five.