Saudi Arabia commits to Typhoon

Published: Jan 03, 2006
Source: www.flightinternational.com



Saudi Arabia has signed an expanded military agreement with the UK government, including a commitment to acquire at least 24 Eurofighter Typhoons to replace its air force fleet of Panavia Tornado Air Defence Variant (ADV) fighters.

Contained within a so-called “understanding document”, the multi-billion pound Typhoon order would provide the cornerstone of a third phase to the bilateral Al Yamamah arms agreement, which has already covered the delivery and support of 120 Tornado ADV and Interdictor Strike (IDS) aircraft, BAE Systems Hawk and Pilatus PC-9 trainers and other equipment.

Announcing the agreement on 21 December, the UK Ministry of Defence said: “Under the terms of the signed document Typhoon aircraft will replace Tornado ADV aircraft and others in service with the RSAF [Royal Saudi Air Force].” The MoD says this will cover the delivery of 24 aircraft to be drawn from the UK Royal Air Force’s production run of 89 Tranche 2 Eurofighters, a £4.3 billion ($7.5 billion) contract for which was signed in December 2004.continue..