Some days ago there was an article on it in a German newspaper, saying that the costs have been cut by two thirds due to the huge ordering volume, and that the manufacturer aggressively seeks new customers. This and the fact that the Europeans will not get their acts together, instead for preparing the next fighter of theirs already start splitting again and running into individual special wishes and desires, now causes even the Luftwaffe to eyeing this aircraft. At least many German Luftwaffe officers are a bit envious. However, buying this from the US instead of producing another international cooperation plaything, would be a monument for that Europe has said good-bye to this branch of hightech heavy industry. So I expect Germany, France, maybe Italy once again will do their own thing. With forseeable results: small ordering volumes, many technical problems, a decade of delays, and exploding costs. Like the A400M transport, which is a humming nightmare in my book. The German army build its new infantry fighting vehcile PUMA (once again the most expensive one of its kind in the world) to the specifications enabling it for air transport via the Airbus. And there we are now... Since years. Many years. Still airtaxi for Pumas. The combo already since many years should have been deployed by now.
We lease Russian and Ukrainian Antonovs to shuffle our peacemakers
to and from Afghanistan. We need others for airlifting them inside Afghanistan. What a madness to have troops in the field - and needing neutral third parties for logistics and mobility. Thats insane. One should deploy only as far as one can support it by one's own capability.
The Eurofighter/Typhoon is plagued by teething problems until today. After all these years it still is not unconditionally combat-ready. And some insiders say it never will be, and needs to be replaced.
The Swedes with their Viggen, draken and Gripen, did it so much more clever than the Eurofighter consortium. Every time they released their latest baby, it was state of the art. And came with a much better bang-for-the buck ratio.
Some European nations already have ordered the F-35, and with its price now dropping below that of the Typhoon LOL, the Luftwaffe maybe should do that too. But "independence" by a European military cannot be had this way - and then it makes no sense to talk of building an "independent" EU-army beside NATO. Which only supports my view that we should forget this EU-army prestige project, and instead use those needed fundings to stronger support our stand in NATO. Why having parallel structures that cost much more?