Last Tuesday (14), the first two Eurofighter Typhoons of the Kuwait Air Force (KAF) landed at its new headquarters, Ali Al Salem Air Base. The fighters, both with two seats, are the first of an order of 28 to arrive in the country.
The aircraft were received with the traditional baptism of water, in addition to Kuwaiti Government authorities and KAF officials. The transfer flight from Italy to the Middle East was ed by two KC-767 tankers from the Italian Air Force.
برعاية وحضور سعادة الأركان العامة للجيش و وكيل وزارة وزارة الدفاع سعادة السفير الإيطالي ، اقيم اقيم اليوم حفل وصول الدفعة طائرات اليوروفايتر تايفون إلى الوطن.
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“The Eurofighter Typhoons we have developed for the Kuwaiti Air Force are the most advanced in the entire history of the European programme. We will provide the country with an air defense of impressive capacity”, said Alessandro Profumo, CEO of Leonardo.
“In cooperation with the Italian Air Force, we train their pilots at our training centers in Italy, and build state-of-the-art infrastructure to and maintain a fleet of 28 aircraft. The milestones we celebrate today are the result of effective cooperation between the two countries, in which Institutions, Armed Forces and Industry worked together in synergy”.
In 2016, the Government of Kuwait signed with Leonardo (at the time Finmeccanica) the purchase of 28 Typhoon fighters (22 single-seat and six two-seat) for 8.7 billion euros. The original schedule dictated that deliveries would begin in 2019, but the program has been delayed.
In any case, the KAF received the most modern Typhoons in existence. The aircraft are in the P3Eb standard and received the Captor-E active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and other updates that other operators should receive in the future. The arrival of the first fighters comes a week after the planes were delivered in Italy.
“An excellent operation for the Italy, is a demonstration of the success of the products of the national industry abroad and represents an important step for the consolidation of the position of the Italian industry in the world. Defense is a stimulus to the development of innovative and increasingly technologically advanced products”, said Italian Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini.
The purchase of the Typhoons is part of a major overhaul of Kuwaiti fighter aviation. In addition to the European jets, Kuwait also acquired another 28 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, for around US$ 10 billion. The Kuwait Air Force operates 34 F/A-18C/D Hornet fighters at Ahmad al-Jaber base in the south of the country. In November, the Commander of the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) confirmed that the country has interest in acquiring F/A-18D Hornet fighters used by KAF.
The Eurofighter program is managed by the Eurofighter GmbH consortium, a company based in Munich, , owned by Leonardo, BAE Systems and Airbus Defense & Space for and Spain.
On the government side, the program is managed by the NATO Eurofighter & Tornado Management Agency (NETMA), which was created to meet the acquisition needs of the air forces of the four participating countries: Italy, United Kingdom, and Spain.
In addition to the four partner countries, which have already ordered 510 Typhoons, international customers now include Saudi Arabia (72 aircraft), Austria (15), Oman (12), Kuwait (28) and Qatar (24), for a total of 661 aircraft on order.
