Austria Oesterreich: three Eurofighters may be bought, possible replacement by F-35A jets in future...

[Stratofreighter]

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October 4, 2022 6:43 p.m

Next year the budget of the Austrian Armed Forces will be increased by one percent of GDP.

This was the result of budget negotiations in this regard.

As reported by Die Presse, the decision can be attributed to the Ukraine war.

This means that the long demands have been yielded to.

However, not quite to the desired level, which Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner had estimated at one and a half percent of GDP in the spring.

The additional money will initially be used to retrofit airspace surveillance.

Three used two-seaters are purchased by the German Air Force.

The existing aircraft are to be equipped with night vision devices, electronic self-defence and medium-range guided missiles.

Those elements that former Defense Minister Norbert Darabos had canceled.

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| 05 OCTOBER 2022 | 5:37 P.M.

Mobility of the troops should be increased

This will mean that the army will not only improve "the mobility of the troops", in other words:
the purchase of successor machines for the decrepit Hercules transporters should be initiated very soon.

Eurofighters are upgraded

Tanner will also upgrade the 15 Austrian Eurofighters:
According to military aviation expert Georg Mader,
Israeli Rafael Litening target devices are to be purchased so that the jets can also identify other aircraft at night,
and the self-protection capability of the Eurofighters is also to be increased.

Don't repeat mistakes

But that's not all.

The army wants to avoid the mistake of the past that weapon systems like
the Saab 105 or the Alouette helicopters are phased out without there being a successor.

As AUSTRIA learned, people are already thinking about the Eurofighter successor, the jets will only fly until 2030/35.

Therefore, the request should have been made to the Armament Directorate to identify possible successors.

Namely - this is explosive -
taking into account the F-35 of the US Lockheed Martin group.

However, this was not confirmed in the army -
but an army spokesman also emphasized that the armaments department always probes very far-reaching.

The F-35 is currently the big hit among fighter jets: Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland have already ordered the US stealth jets. Your advantage: There is still no successor for European jets in sight.

https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news ... eplacement

Having received 15 Typhoons in a limited Tranche 1 standard from 2007,

Eurofighter and the OL are looking at enhancement options that might include
integration of the Rafael Litening-5 targeting pod for night-time air-to-air identification of target aircraft,
Raytheon AIM-120-C8 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAMs) for a near-beyond-visual-range (BVR) capability,
and missile-approach warning systems.

Reports of the addition of three ex-German two-seater aircraft to the fleet were not confirmed in the budget.

[Worldnis]

Already a few years after the controversial Austrian EF order it became apparent that the Tranche 1 models which they bought (less a/c and 2nd hand instead of new Tranche 2) would become obsolete. They simply could not be upgraded, see the fate of UK Tranche 1. So yes understandable that Austria is putting up more money for defense but their EF are very hard to update efficiently, if at all. But hey new numbers for some, new air force type for others.