Asked a few days ago about future sales of the Eurofighter Typhoon , Gaincarlo Mezzanatto, the CEO of the Eurofighter consortium, seemed particularly confident, announcing that he expected to record up to 200 new aircraft ordered in both years to come .
This volume was therefore surprising. Indeed, apart from the Spanish Halcyon 2 contract, which will have to complete the replacement of the F/A-18 Hornet and AV-8B Harrier II currently in service, and which will probably be split between a fleet of F-35A/Bs of On the other hand, we are talking about 50 aircraft, and a fleet of Typhoon , probably 25, the only obvious prospect for the European fighter was based on a possible second batch of Typhoon intended to replace the Tornadoes of the Luftwaffe, knowing that the orders for F-35A and Typhoon Tranche III already announced only covered 60 of the 90 aircraft to be replaced.
Indeed, in an article published today by the German information site WirtschaftsWoche , the European consortium is in advanced negotiations with Saudi Arabia for a new order of 72 aircraft, after a first order, again of 72 aircraft, announced in 2006 and fully executed in 2017.
It is true that in 2018, Riyadh signed an MoU with London for the acquisition of 48 additional aircraft. However, at that time, Berlin had vetoed the sale of arms to the Saudi kingdom following the military intervention in Yemen and the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
According to the German site, Berlin would not this time intend to oppose the transaction, while London and Berlin would have engaged in "very active" talks to overcome the last obstacles in order to authorize the export of the fighters to the Royal Saudi Air Force.
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[…] barring a turnaround as unlikely as it is spectacular, we can expect that the ambitions displayed a few days ago by Gaincarlo Mezzanatto, the CEO of the Eurofig consortium… who estimated that it would record within 2 years at come, around 200 device orders […]