The fighters will be upgraded by several million, so they remain the strongest part of Austria’s active airspace surveillance despite rumors of sale and replacement. And could be getting reinforcements soon.
Two years ago, the “Krone” calculated what will happen next (see fragment below): The Eurofighters remain. Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner (ÖVP) confirmed to the “Krone” on Thursday that the fighter jets will be modified and thus remain an integral part of Austrian airspace surveillance. “Nevertheless, I will continue to argue for a cost-efficient solution,” said the minister. “But our Eurofighters are basically good machines.”
This retrofit should include three points that are rumored time and again:
- The making of a Nachtkampffähigkeitie a way to identify targets at night and fight them if necessary. In the simplest case this can be done with night vision goggles, in the more modern case with reconnaissance sensors in a pod carried under a wing.
- The possibility to self-protection by sensors that detect when the aircraft is detected by radar and automatically eject decoys when a missile approaches (“DASS”)
- The addition of the current short-range missile IRIS-T to long-range missiles of the type AMRAAM or METEOR
The question is whether the single Eurofighter system will survive in the long term. Because Austria is heading – also against the background of a future higher defense budget – possibly again towards a multi-fleet solution as in the Saab 105 times. For three reasons.
1.) Our 15 Eurofighters, of which about five are ready for action at any time, repeatedly reach their limits. Especially at large events, where many aircraft are needed in the air at the same time.
2.) More and more air forces in Europe are switching to 24-hour standby, as recently in Switzerland. For this, Austria would need significantly more jets and about twice as many pilots – who would also need to be trained.
3.) Due to the modification, our old Eurofighters from the 1st production tranche (2000s) will probably be operational for another 15 years. Successor systems should already be considered in the long armament cycles.
As a reminder, Defense Minister Tanner’s plans provide for an increase in the Austrian defense budget from the current 0.6% of GDP to 1% and even to 1.5% by 2027. In addition, a pot of 10 billion euros must be added. are for urgent investment. Enough money for a serious restructuring of air traffic control – if Parliament agrees.
Source: Krone
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