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Italy is to replace 26 Tranche 1 Eurofighter combat aircraft with up to 24 new Tranche 4+ aircraft under a deal signed on 23 December. (Janes/Gareth Jennings)
Italy has signed for up to 24 new Eurofighter Typhoons (designated F-2000 in national service) to replace early model aircraft that are due for retirement.
Leonardo, the national industrial prime in the four-country Eurofighter consortium, announced the deal with the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency (NETMA) on 23 December. The announcement did not say what tranche the new aircraft would be, and neither did it provide a breakdown of the number of single and twin seaters.
News of the award came 13 months after Janes was told at the IQPC International Fighter Conference (IFC) 2023 in Madrid that the Italian Air Force (Aeronautica Militare Italiana: AMI) was looking at a further 24 aircraft to replace its 26 (including 10 twin seat) early model Eurofighter Tranche 1 fleet. The current build model is at the Tranche 4 standard (all earlier enhancements, plus an E-Scan radar), meaning that these newly contracted Italian aircraft will likely be at the Tranche 4+ (Tranche 4 plus some unspecified improvements) standard that was introduced to mitigate delays to the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) package that is supposed to define Tranche 5.
Speaking to reporters at the Farnborough International Airshow in July, Eurofighter CEO Giancarlo Mezzanatto said that Italy's urgent requirement for these new aircraft would see them delivered with the Leonardo European Common Radar System (ECRS) Mk 0 radar, which is the latest operational version of the E-Scan radar.
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