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15 May 2014
Key Points
•Defence budget cuts have forced the Austrian Air Force to cut it cadre of Typhoon pilots from 18 to 12
•Further cuts under consideration could also compromise the security of Austria's airspace
Since late April the cadre of qualified pilots in the Austrian Air Force's Eurofighter Typhoon squadron at Zeltweg has been reduced
from 18 to 12 because of the gripping effects of politically induced austerity measures and extensive defence budget cuts,
which concluded with EUR42 million (USD57 million) less for 2014 and EUR38 million less for 2015, IHS Jane's has learnt.
The cull, which came out of the blue,
reportedly hit the oldest pilots in the small Austrian 'supersonic cadre'.
Officially confirming the measure, the Austrian Ministry of Defence (MoD) explained it as
"necessary because of the annually assigned jet-fuel contingent in the future,
which would not allow all the 18 pilots fly their annual hours, which they have to have to stay safe.
With the reduced pool of flying hours, the number of pilots was cut instead of the number of airframes."
The final tranche of payments to cover the 2003 contract for Austria's Eurofighters
(which in 2007 was renegotiated down from 18 to 15 airframes) will be paid this year,
but this funding, which amounts to EUR114 million, will not stay with the Austrian armed forces,
which will their budget for 2015 cut by a corresponding amount.
The extent of the Austrian military's budgetary woes can be illustrated by the fact that the harsh measure of
culling a third of the Eurofighter pilots was taken despite it not actually saving much.
Regardless of whether the fleet is flown with fewer airframes or fewer pilots flying all 15 aircraft,
this will only save jet-bonus salaries, fuel and daily operating costs on site such as line maintainance etc.
The rest of the ever negatively highlighted flying-hour costs of EUR 60,000 to EUR70,000 are 81% non-Eurofighter specific,
induced by the standing tasks of the in-service support contracts for logistical and spare parts support,
which are measured independently from the numbers of flying hours.
Thus, only 19% of these costs are related to how much the aircraft are actually flown.
Axeing the small Austrian Eurofighter fleet of 15 Tranche-1 airframes down to 12 or even 9
was always an option discussed in recent weeks -
and it is still not off the table.
IHS Jane's has learnt that after a complete review of the cuts is published by Chief of the General Staff General Othmar Commenda in June,
the Austria's air surveillance capabilities via its national Goldhaube ('Golden Hat') system might be reduced,
despite a sixth RAT-31DL radar being acquired recently.
This would mean that only certain air sectors could be watched to an extent equal to previous levels of surveillance.
Alternatively, the quick reaction alert mission performed by the Austrian Air Force could be reduced
from its current seven-days-a-week, daybreak-to-sunset readiness
to a regime similar to the much-criticised 'office hours only' schedule operated by the Swiss Air Force.
A lack of funding is also affecting Austria's nine Sikorsky S-70A42 helicopters.
The fleet is due to receive a regular navaid/software upgrade by Sikorsky,
but the EUR50-80 million required for this is not yet budgeted for and nowhere in sight.
Two S-70s have already to been taken out of daily flying duties
and without the update the rest will be reduced to operations under visual flight rules (VFR) only in 2018 and be out of flight certification in 2020.
Meanwhile,
a cut to or even a phasing out of the three ex-Royal Air Force C-130K transport aircraft based at Linz-Hoersching is being discussed
and additionally no replacement is in sight for Austria's
44-year-old Saab105 advanced jet trainer/light attack aircraft or 47-year-old SA.316/319 Alouette III helicopters.
Besides the air force, 900 vehicles are being phased out because of fuel and maintainance costs, while tanks and artillery pieces are now rarely used.
Higher ranks in desk jobs are also having to 'donate' their personal combat gear to serving troops,
who themselves are increasingly transported to exercises or events within Austria in commercial coaches.
The current Austrian forces (Bundesheer) annually need EUR1.3 billion for personnel and EUR0.7 billion for operations at home and abroad but are only receiving EUR1.84 billion (or 0.5% of GNP):
a situation regarded with disbelief by some of the foreign defence attaches assigned to Vienna who have talked to IHS Jane's .
"Do your politicians and media live in a pink lullaby-box?
Vienna is closer to Ukraine than Switzerland!
Several - much more distant - EU-countries like Sweden are shifting up two gears in defence -
and you are deliberately or nonchalently destroying the forces of a sovereign nation who is persistently calling itself forever neutral'?"
one NATO attache said.
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