A Luftwaffe Eurofighter at ILA 2024 in Berlin. The four-partner consortium has launched Part 1 of LTE upgrade technology maturation work. (Janes/Gareth Jennings)
Eurofighter has launched the technology maturation phase (TMP) for the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) package for the multirole combat aircraft, the consortium CEO Giancarlo Mezzanatto announced on 19 December.
Eurofighter and the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency (NETMA) launched Part 1 of LTE TMP following German parliamentary approval earlier in December. The work will involve upgrades to the Eurofighter's cockpit design, mission computing, flight-control computing, and communications and armament control systems.
“LTE will be the major midlife technology upgrade for the Eurofighter, bringing several major enhancements to the jet – specifically to its avionics architecture,” Mezzanatto said. News of the milestone came months after Mezzanatto said at the Farnborough International Airshow in July that he was confident LTE TMP would be signed off before the end of 2024.
The wider LTE is geared at taking the Eurofighter's capabilities out to beyond the Phase Enhancement (PE) packages, and includes upgrades for the aircraft's mission system architecture, defensive aids, human-machine interface (HMI), operational flexibility, and engine performance. As previously noted by Eurofighter, the LTE will support greater connectivity via the generation, transmission, and utilisation of increasing amounts of digital data for mission system architecture both onboard (via advanced multispectral sensors) and offboard (via high-performance tactical datalinks) while countering new and emerging threats, including cyber. This will maintain the Eurofighter's ability to operate in a highly contested and congested future operating environment.
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