Article Posted on : - Mar 10, 2014

First Italian Tranche 3 Eurofighter Typhoon. Photo: Copyright Eurofighter.

VENEGONO SUPERIORE, ITALY (BNS): Alenia Aermacchi's first Tranche 3 Eurofighter Typhoon for the Italian Air Force has been rolled out of a company plant.

The Tranche 3 standard embodies a number of changes that effectively enhance the aircraft's performance and which allow for future upgrades making it more attractive to current and potential export customers, according to a company news release.

"The aircraft embodies a number of changes with respect to previous production tranches making it even more operationally capable and also a series of provisions allowing it to take on additional capability in the future. For example, the Tranche 3 aircraft has been built with power, cooling and electronics to allow for the fitting of the new E-Scan radar", said Alessandra Saroglia, Alenia Aermacchi Eurofighter programme manager.

Under the Tranche 3A contract signed in 2009, a total of 112 aircraft have been ordered for the four European partner nations of Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, with 21 aircraft bound for the Italian Air Force.

The first Italian Tranche 3 has been produced for the Italian Air Force by the Eurofighter Partner Companies and assembled by Alenia Aermacchi. The Italian single seat aircraft no.64 is now ready for engine tests at Turin-Caselle and will be delivered within the first half of this year, the release added.