The Eurofighter Typhoon has been grounded after a series of faults occurred in flight. Engineers are working to discover the cause of the problem, which is the latest setback in years of troubles for the programme.
The Eurofighter is a joint effort between Britain's largest defence manufacturer, BAE Systems and the Franco-German Eads, supported by the respective governments.
The grounding of the aircraft is a safety precaution after a series of problems were discovered while flying. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence said that the flights of the Typhoon had been suspended after three "in flight incidents". Two occurred where the undercarriage malfunctioned. The third incident involved a problem with the brakes on Friday. They failed when an aircraft was attempting to stop on a runway in Munich.
The spokesperson described the incidents as "teething problems", and said that a back-up system meant that there was no damage to the aircraft.
She added that the first formal delivery of three aircraft to the RAF, which had been expected on Friday, was likely to be delayed. Last week Eurofighter jets were officially presented to the Spanish air force, but their intended participation in an air display during the country's national day parade on Sunday had to be cancelled after the suspension of flights.
Officials said that they did not know how long the aircraft would be grounded.
Last month the German court of auditors strongly criticised the Eurofighter project for a series of technical glitches, including an inability to fire the aircrafts' weapons.
In November, a aeroplane crashed in Spain. The project is now four years late and £1bn over budget.
A spokesperson for the Eurofighter corporation said that on Friday that one of the test aircraft had a problem braking, so it "seemed prudent" to ground the aircraft.
"It is not going to derail the whole program," he said. He said that it was too early to tell which contractor was responsible for the problems.
The programme is often criticised as it was designed as a solution to the cold war problems. The government of German and Britain are both considering whether to decrease their orders for the aircraft.

I won't say "I told you so". I never liked it & nothing I've seen so far has changed my mind. I suspected from the very start that this thing will be obsolete (or at least obsolescent) before it enters service. It's always the same with anything designed by a committee. The price goes way over estimated budget & our services get inferior equiipment. 

Most successful British military aircraft I can think of were originally developed as private ventures, usually by the foresight & at the expense of the manufacturer. Some were virtually ruined once the the brass hats had finished adding the stuff they wanted. (The Beagle Basset communications aircraft ended up at twice the weight of its successful predecessor the Beagle 206. I'm surprised it could even get off the ground.) Fortunately some gave oustanding service despite this interference, the Spitfire & Harrier are only 2 examples I could mention. Unfortunately, with the state of the British aircraft industry it's no longer possible for one company (& one design team) to produce anything competitive.

We should buy some Hornets.  They certainly look prettier.

Will

  I though I heard that British Aerospace bought the aircraft division of SAAB?  If so wouldn't the "Griffen" be a better replacement for the Eurofighter?  It would have most of the capabilities of the Eurofighter, except for range, and would still be home built.

  If not maybe the F-22 would be a good choice, if the U.S. is willing to sell them.

nah I like the eurofighter and besides the typhoon kicked the rafales arse in air combat tests Its only a problem with the undecarraige and nothing too serious I'm still confident of the aircraft.

  "good ol' F-4s"........sounds like its time for an upgrade!

The tornado was a euro colaboration and that was a huge succes (not to mention a beauty of an aircraft.)

The Buccaneer had its fair share of teething problems as well. The tornado is currently doing pretty well for itself and been very helpful in Gulf 2.

The greatest aircraft ever owned was the sea vixen. had HUGE potential and labour wiped it out of view as usual.

looks a heck of alot like the F4 phantom:) with a few differances.
the tornado definatly prooved its worth in gulf war 2 since it was the first low level bomber into the heart of baghdad during the first wave of strikes, however its really starting to age, but the eurofighter really isnt the only to replace it, we need another heavy fighter bomber,

our MiG-29 will be given to poland and our F-4 are the newest versions,also operated by israel and turkey.

Not likely to happen I'm afraid. I believe we should cut our losses & purchase existing successful aircraft. The British aircraft industry is no longer capable of producing complex military aircraft. Aircraft production is now international. Even huge corporations like Boeing work in partnership with other companies.

You mention the Harrier. This is close to my heart as the BAe Dunsfold facility (a few miles from my home) where this revolutionary aircraft was developed & built was closed some time ago. Many of my friends lost their jobs as a result. The experienced & talented workforce are now dispersed far & wide & will never work as a team again. Some found jobs as baggage handlers at Gatwick. The QA Manager I used to deal with is now a CAA surveyor.

Crumbso. I'm as patriotic as the next guy but you have to face facts. This wouldn't be the first time we've used US aircraft. The F-4 Phantom gave excellent service for a while & what about the JSF? Without wishing to get political I might remind you that it was Duncan Sandys (a true blue Conservative & son-in-law of Winston Churchill) who first suggested the policy that started the decline of Britain's aircraft industry & ultimately led to the cancellation of the TSR.2 & your precious Sea Vixen.
http://www.aemann.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/aircraft/hyper/sandys.html

Well, I have the advantage of living through those times. It saddened me to see all those great names that were part of our aviation heritage disappear for ever. One thing I learned through all this. All politicians are the same & I don't trust any of 'em.

IMHO the duthc government would be better off if they bought some custom-made Su-30MK's

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NO! i don't think it's because of the cooperation. the cooperation between european states is a sign for unity and if we hadn't had cooperations between the states of europe ,we couldn't get much farther than living door-to-door without further relations. sure,the eurofighter's got some probs,but they're just minor ones. the manufacturers will learn through this and improve their "skills",so that this won't happen again in future.

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stealth? why stealth? expensive ,unnecessary and vulnerable. as you could see during the kosovo crisis. they weren't even necessary during the war on iraq,because B-52s could have performed those bombardements,too.

Stealth is nice... on a machine which is based on a well-proven concept.

The main reason the JSF will fail is that the concept is flawed. The design is based on the phased-out Yak-38 (Forger) and the Yak-141(Freestyle) that never became a success and is replaced by Su-35's.

Even if it looks like the poor man's F-22 which it really is, it never gets near to the performance of it, even when you scale the Raprtor down to the size and relative engine strength of the F-35.

Why Lockheed ever got the idea to continue the (failed) Yak-141 in a different shape is a mystery to me. The USMC harriers, even if they aren't supersonic, are good enough for the job they are bought for (close air support), especially in the operating enviroment of today.

Furthermore it isn't capable of flying backwards (the harrier can fly backwards) which restricts the landing and takeoff capabilities and will cause the RAF to completely rethink and rebuild the VTOL operations and the equipment associated with it as it was built to utilise the complete movement envelope of the Harrier.


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Stealth is expensive to construct, maintain and fly (computer stuff)
I still have to see the firsth stealt aircraft which can stay airborne with it's main flight control computer disabled. The MiG-29 and all the Flanker variants can do that.

And as long as both the F/A-18 and F-15 and their weapons can be out-flown by machines from the late 60's if the pilot wants to (Mig-25, January 1991, one kill againsa a F/A-18 which the USAF likes to deny) speed is more important than radar visibility. FYI: that same aircraft can outrun AIM-7 and AIM-9 missile fuses, AIM-120s probably have a hard time catching one if it wants to run. Who needs stealth when you can outfly anything the west has in stores at the moment (MiG-25: advised speed limit by MiG is M2.6, max safe speed M2.83, max recorded M3.2. MiG-31: advised speed limit by MiG is M2.83 but it can go faster as it has even more power than a MiG-25 and won't overspeed the engines)

Can't think what use this JSF will be then. I suspect the good old Harrier will still be in service for a few more years yet. Isn't a new carrier on the cards? Goodness knows when that will be in service. I seem to remember it's already well over budget. Woody will know the details.

PS. Check this out. http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/cvf/

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Oops.....! Forewarned is forearmed. I'd better keep my big mouth shut on this one then.

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LOL i wouldnt worry, i know very little from him, all i ever get is the "its top secret information right now" speach
although in true MOD fashion, they had a major computer failure this week
its one of those i will try and feed bits of info i get from him, but generally i know less than you lot do:)

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OK, so here's the obvious question. Well, it seems logical to me anyway.

I believe the Harrier is the only aircraft capable of operating from the RN carriers currently in service. You say the Royal Navy retires its Harriers in 2006 which I don't doubt is correct. According to the link I posted  "The first steel is to be cut in 2005 and the two carriers will enter service in 2012 and 2015." Allowing for the inevitable delays this could well be even longer. So what do we do in the meantime? ???