In a television interview, Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hakan Fidan, announced an agreement with Qatar for the purchase of twelve Eurofighter Typhoon Tranche 3a+ jets currently in service with the Qatar Emiri Air Force.
These aircraft, possessing minimal flight hours and essentially new, are equipped with the Leonardo IT and BAE Systems’ E-SCAN Mk 0 or CAPTOR-E electronic scanning radar.
These aircraft will later be supplemented by twenty Eurofighter Tranche 5 jets that BAE Systems will construct from scratch for Turkey as part of a contract worth 9.16 billion Euros.
These twenty Eurofighters will have the E-SCAN Mk 2 radar system, developed by Leonardo UK and BAE Systems for the needs of the Royal Air Force; the British Air Force will upgrade forty Eurofighter Typhoon Tranche 3a with the ERCS Mk 2.
Turkey’s Eurofighter purchases may not stop here, as the Ankara government is in negotiations with Oman for the purchase of another twelve Eurofighter Tranche 3a equipped with Captor M mechanical scanning radar.
The transfer of Eurofighters to Turkey is expected to bring the Emirate of Qatar to order a new batch of these fighter-bombers in its most advanced version.
Photo credit @BAE Systems
