Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan stated that Turkiye and Qatar have reached a mutual understanding on the transfer of Eurofighter Tranche 3A.
Minister Hakan Fidan, in his interview with AHaber, stated that Turkiye and Qatar have a political willingness for the transfer of Eurofighter Tranche 3A fighter jets from the Qatar Emiri Air Force.
Fidan added that the recent visit to Qatar from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan saw the political part of the agreement, and the rest is up to the two air forces for the technical part.
The transfer of Eurofighter Tranche 3A fighters will allow the Turkish Air Force to familiarise itself with the platform. This carries significance as the Turkish Air Force has been using F-16 as its sole fighter jet, while F-4E 2020s are mostly reserved for strike missions.
If the deal is finalised, the deal will almost double the future fleet of Turkish Air Force Eurofighters as the agreement with the UK covers 20 newly built aircraft.
Despite the second-hand nature of the fighters, they can be described almost as good as new due to the deliveries being less than five years ago.
What You Should Know About Equipment
The most important feature of Tranche 3A variant is the provision to replace the current Captor-M mechanically-scanned radar with the Captor-E series of AESA radars, which also feature pivoting to expand the tracking envelope.
Newly built Eurofighters for Turkiye will use the Captor-E radar with the variant not mentioned, but likely to be the ECRS Mk2 due to the UK and Italy preferring it for their own Eurofighters, and the ECRS Mk1 preferred by Spain and Germany as a separate development. ECRS Mk2 features extensive upgrades in electronic warfare capabilities compared to the baseline ECRS Mk0, which were incorporated in response to the UK’s emphasis on this capability.
Additionally, Qatari Eurofighters are capable of using the unique munitions such as Meteor ramjet-powered BVRAAM and Brimstone air-to-surface missile.
Author: Kaan Azman
Editor:Özgür Ekşi