Acaban de publicar la Eurofighter World de julio:
https://www.eurofighter.com/files/magaz ... 022-02.pdf
Sobre los plazos la P4E y la LTE:
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With a 10-Year Plan taking shape Eurofighter is entering a crucial phase which will keep it operationally relevant into the 2060s. Andrea Thompson, Managing Director of the Europe & International business at BAE Systems, and Chair of the Eurofighter Supervisory Board, believes the future is bright.
This is a pivotal moment for Eurofighter. Today our partners are mapping out the future capability journey, and in particular the Long Term Evolution (LTE) that underpins the future development of the weapon system and P4E which will ensure the E-Scan radar can reach its full operational capability.
The groundwork is complete. Last year, Eurofighter laid out a 10-year plan with the core nations, Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom and their respective industry partners, which describes the capability journey. Essentially, the first five years are well defined and include on-contract programmes.
The focus now is on crystallising the final five years of the plan and that comprises the technologies and capabilities which will ensure Typhoon’s role as the backbone of air defence across the world.
We're now in the process of defining specific national requirements and timescales harmonising these and looking at the sequencing for this new capability to be delivered to meet the needs of our customers. There is a key window between 2028 and 2032 for the delivery of the next phase of capability upgrades, known as P4E. This a sweet spot where the four Eurofighter core nations require pieces of, or all the capability, during that period.
Beyond that comes LTE with a focus on longer term development of capability. This is about supporting Typhoon to ensure it remains operationally relevant to 2060 and beyond. We're in the Study Definition Phase, finalising options for the nations. Later this year, we expect the 10-year plan to be finalised.
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Part of this is the agile way we are looking at implementing any new capability. Traditionally, we've delivered big blocks of capability improvement every couple of years. The future will see smaller blocks of capability that come more frequently. Not only will we deliver new capability more often but doing it that way allows us to test and drive out costs more efficiently.
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Tremendos los plazos. Hasta 2032 no terminan con la P4E (integración del AESA) y a partir de ahí vendría la LTE si se hacen bien los deberes. Eso significa que los primeros T2 tendrán 24 años cuando acabe la P4E. Por lo tanto, si la LTE tarda otros diez más, lo más posible es que se reserve solo para los T3 y posteriores.
Respecto a las unidades kuwaitíes, parece que también han renovado parte de la aviónica, no solo radar:
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“The aircraft has a new suite of capabilities, and the integration challenges were huge,” says Maurizio. “We created a new block (standard) clearance, we introduced a new E-Scan radar for the first time, and we updated the avionics configuration to the latest standard.”
Given the ultimate goal, the programme represented a huge engineering challenge. One that involved all the disciplines that complete the big picture — from the avionics, flight control systems and through to the integration of the new stores. The work touched every single discipline involved in the Eurofighter programme.
CREATING A NEW BASELINE
While the programme headlines have focused on the new customer, Kuwait, Maurizio points out that it is not a pure export programme. It is qualified and certified under the Eurofighter four-nation umbrella (Italy, Germany, the UK and Spain) because P3Eb (the formal name of the programme) is a NETMA contract.
He says this new standard will form the baseline for the core nation programme. “We have now established a weapons system capability and that is a key first step in the Eurofighter 10 Year Plan. All future programmes will use this as a baseline for introducing the new capabilities. Indeed, even as we were delivering the initial aircraft, we were also working to progress future clearances to update the weapons system capabilities for the customer. So, the show goes on.”
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) que había junto a uno de nuestros HARRIER B. Muchos decía que menuda preciosidad de piloto, pero nada de eso, aunque sí estaba muy relacionada con el avión, ya que era la esposa del piloto que estaba a los mandos del mismo
