MADER Georg:
The Austrian Federal Army: Back to the Start? A Last-Minute Comment on the Current Political Turmoil in Vienna, in: European Security & Defence, H 6 (2019), p. 27-29
At the same time and according to ICAO regulations, the Austrian EUROFIGHTERs will also have to operate a new IFF Mode S/-5 transponder after 2021. At an expected cost of around €500.000M per aircraft, the materials authority of the MoD is currently waiting to see which of the models the four core nations will choose. Allegedly, the German Air Force is very relaxed on this matter, and if no fleet-wide decision is to be expected, Austria would turn to Leonardo's model of equipment.
MADER Georg:
“With 0.5% of GDP, we cannot even achieve rudimentary military defence.” , in: European Security & Defence, H 6 (2019), p. 30-35
ESD: This brings us directly to the postponed decision on the future of the 15 EUROFIGHTER Tranche-1s that have been operating from Airbase Zeltweg since 2007. The current Defence Minister Kunasek handed over his report on another commission to the political level of the current coalition a year ago, which, however, held him back. Now it is no longer up to the MoD to decide whether to modernise EUROFIGHTER, drop it or replace the old Saab trainers. But I am sure that you had to make some fundamental considerations on this rather expensive question.
Gen. Brieger: Oh yes, while this is or will be a political decision, some basics cannot be left unmentioned. With all variants, there is the need to calculate all life-cycle costs. That was the mistake with the EUROFIGHTER; after delivery of the first EUROFIGHTER, their instalments and running costs were suddenly included in the annual budgets by a following government – contrary to what had been agreed earlier. Nevertheless, especially a neutral country has to take care of its own sovereign airspace. We cannot leave this task to others, as some NATO countries like Slovenia and the Baltic States do. The other week, I was invited to Switzerland to Payerne by my Swiss colleague KKdt. Rebord. They take this task very seriously.
ESD: There, at Payerne, the in-country evaluation for the renewed Swiss fighter programme is going on now. Did you get any insights?
Gen. Brieger: No, not when it comes to evaluation details. However, what I have noted in general was that one can do much more with €4.4Bn than with €2.2Bn. And we have heard that the Swiss Air Force will in the near future raise its QRA readiness to 24 hours/seven days.
ESD: This means that we are the last country in Europe with a fleet unable to provide QRA readiness, right?
Gen. Brieger: Yes. But that extended mission we cannot achieve with the Eurofighter today. We would need to do an upgrade and we would need to fly considerably more fleet hours than we do today. And we would clearly need more pilots than today.
ESD: ‘Pilots‘ is the buzzword for my next question. While any composition of the future active air-surveillance components will be a political one by any coalition government, is it right that it is impossible to shift the 40% fortnight share of airpolicing shouldered by the 12 remaining 1970s Saab-105 to the 15 EUROFIGHTERs with the same number of pilots and not doubling their annual flight hours? The 14 Czech GRIPEN at Caslav for example, are flown by 28 pilots!
Gen. Brieger: Yes. Without any substitute aircraft, the air surveillance will, of course, become further limited or restricted. Just the opposite of what we said about Switzerland.
ESD: And that will not be alleviated or straightened by possibly two or three ex-German EUROFIGHTER two-seaters. That means from the view of human potential, there is a need for a second much cheaper and modern platform.
Gen. Brieger: Correct, such two-seat fighters would not really help. If you look at the issue economically, saving precious and costly flying hours in peacetime air surveillance by bringing it down from the supersonic element into a second fleet would be a good solution, because technically and from a maintenance perspective, our centre at Zeltweg is indeed able to deal with such systems. We have surprised German Air Force guests with the level of what we service on the EUROFIGHTER on our own and how cost-efficiently we operate that system. We have successfully stretched check intervals according to our flying hours pensum, we do not send the ejection seats to a German company but service them ourselves.
ESD: When a new administration might finally commit to a variant including a small number of modern substitute trainers, would it not be too late? Initial deliveries following a contract take two years or more. Is the deadline for retiring the ‘105s‘ still the 1 January 2021? Is there flexibility remaining to stretch that?
Gen. Brieger: I rule that out. End of service is at the end of 2020.
ESD: When will the so-called ‘mobilisation package’ announced last August lead to the launch of an RFP for the 12 to 14 light multi-role helicopters? The extra funds have been granted, right?
Gen. Brieger: Yes, they are granted. And, in parallel, there has been a wide-ranging request and questionnaire to friendly nations – including Canada from what I have heard – and the answers are now being evaluated. We aim to have a relatively swift selection process following governmentto- government (G2G) principles.
ESD: G2G means to speak only with foreign governments without a tender for an open competition of manufacturers, right? However, I have heard from some manufacturers that they have doubts about how this should be done in detail, because in the end you have to talk to the manufacturers of the helicopter or any other item. And only Sweden and the US have their own defence export agencies for their equipment. Armies can only sell used or superfluous equipment, but not newly produced technology.
Gen. Brieger: Based on what we experienced with the EUROFIGHTER procurement, there is now a preference for government- to-government. We are investigating the options as there are several. We have sent various enquiries to partners, and the answers are now being evaluated by our directorate-general for armaments. I am convinced we will see results shortly. Regarding the type, I want to point to the example of the PANDUR APC. Here, we procured a certain number – and we then passed a part of that number on to Slovenia, since they had selected that type. The prerequisite is that a partner nation – like for example Italy – procures a particular item and then passes it on to us. That is government-to-government.
ESD: For a long time, the Austrian military structure placed aviators under the the army or an air force staff in the joint forces command. In 2017, new Air Force Command was created, which was recently revoked by the current Minister with the ill-fated LV 21.1 reform. I have heard people criticise this 'downgrade' and say that it is only a political step to create a new name tag. Did you hear that too?
Gen. Brieger: Partly. Yet, this is an emotional thing. I am sure that the Austrian military pilots do an excellent job every day, no matter where they are on the organisation chart.
VILLAREJO Esteban:
A Long Life for the Spanish EUROFIGHTER , in: European Security & Defence, H 6 (2019), p. 63-64
The Tranche 1 Retrofit
“The replacement of Tranche 1 EUROFIGHTERs is not an issue at the moment. Tranche 1 fleet has just started a modernisation programme, which includes hardware and software upgrades, taking care of obsolescence issues by integrating Tranche 2 hardware. Operational upgrades include new capabilities, like the possibility of carry litening targeting pods”, the official spokesperson of the Spanish Air Force, Lieutenant- Colonel Marcos Díez Estévez, told ESD.
Last February, Airbus delivered the first upgraded Tranche 1 EUROFIGHTER to the Spanish Air Force. The upgrade was carried out at the Airbus facilities in Getafe and involved the introduction of hardware modifications, which support the Operational Flight Programme 02 (OFP02) developed by the Armament and Experimental Logistics Centre (CLAEX) in the Spanish Air Force.
The upgrade developed by Airbus includes modifications that integrate Tranche 2 and Tranche 3 equipment on the aircraft, such as a Computer Symbol Generator, Digital Video and Voice Recorder, Laser Designator Pod and Maintenance Data Panel.
“This first single-seat EUROFIGHTER (serial number SS003), to be followed by a second two-seat aircraft currently undergoing the upgrade, will be used initially by CLAEX as a test aircraft for the qualification of these new capabilities that will be implemented on the Air Force’s fleet of 17 Tranche 1 EUROFIGHTERs”, Fernando Peces, responsible for the EUROFIGHTER programme at Airbus DS in Spain, stated. Another pillar of the Phase 2 Enhancements (P2E) of the Spanish EUROFIGHTER will be the integration of the METEOR missile. Developed and produced by a consortium of European companies led by MBDA, the METEOR missile is undoubtedly the main innovation of the P2E. METEOR is a radar missile designed to destroy targets at previously unattainable distances. Its maximum range is well over 100 kilometres, twice as long as other missiles designed for combat beyond the visual line of sight (BVLoS), including the US AMRAAM, which remains the most important reference to date.
Being a fully European technology, METEOR contributes to the autonomy of the continent in terms of defence with a truly revolutionary product, which has no equivalent in the market. In addition to the EUROFIGHTER, this missile has been integrated into the Swedish GRIPEN, the French RAFALE and the British F-35.
E-Scan Integration
After the retrofit of Tranche 1 in 2023, Airbus DS wants to introduce E-Scan radar in the entire fleet. This adaptation will imply improvements in the following capacities: detection, attack and identification; SAR modes (synthetic aperture radar); transmission of images; electromagnetic measurements; and integration of smart weapons.
The integration of the E-Scan radar is a binational programme involving Spain and Germany to start in 2022 in the Luftwaffe fleet. It will bring about an improvement in the processing and electronic warfare functions.
It is expected that Spain’s fleet of 77 EUROFIGHTER will be in service until 2045 when the Future Combat Aircraft System (FCAS) will start to replace them.
http://esd.eu.newsmemory.com/