The German parliament today approved a 5.4 billion euro contract to buy 38 Eurofighter jets from Airbus.
The Parliament’s budget committee allocated the funds to form the initial block of aircraft out of the 93 Eurofighter jets it is committed to purchase from Airbus Defence, German media reports said.
The German selection of the Eurofighter over the Lockheed Martin F-35 will mean that the German Air Force will not be flying the American Jet in future which the US has been keen to sell to Berlin.
Meanwhile, the German Bundeswehr announced that the Bundestag (Parliament) annual budget process decided today to replace the Eurofighter Tranche _1 aircraft with the latest generation Tranche-4. “With the approval, the so-called Quadriga contract will be signed in November,” it said.
The arrival of a total of 38 new aircraft is expected to take place between 2025 and 2030. Seven of the Eurofighters for the Air Force will be training doubles.
The decision also includes 4 so-called “instrumented” Eurofighters. With these aircraft, specially cabled and equipped for test purposes, the weapon system can be further developed in cooperation with the armaments industry in order to advance the future of the Eurofighter operationally but also technologically in Germany.