Eurofighter Typhoon C.16 Typhoon

C.16 is the designation the Spanish Air and Space Force (Ejército del Aire y del Espacio) applies to the single-seat Eurofighter Typhoon; the two-seater is designated CE.16. The aircraft carry unit codes of the form 11-XX, 14-XX and 462-XX depending on the wing they belong to, and today they are split between Morón Air Base (Seville), home of Ala 11, and Los Llanos Air Base (Albacete), home of Ala 14. Spain had joined the European programme in 1985 with the aim of eventually replacing its French-built Mirage F1s, and the Spanish order came to 73 aircraft, 14 of them two-seaters.

The C.16's entry into service reshaped the Spanish fighter force: Ala 11's F/A-18s were transferred to Ala 46 at Gando Air Base in the Canary Islands, and in May 2004 the first three Eurofighters arrived at Morón from the EADS-CASA plant at Getafe, together with the first pilots and technicians trained on the new weapon system. With them the 113 Operational Conversion Squadron was created, through which every future Typhoon pilot passes, while 111 Squadron took on the air-defence and attack roles. The type was officially declared in service in October 2004, and in 2008 the wing qualified for quick reaction alert (QRA), joining Spain's standing air-defence commitments. The squadrons' radio callsigns are Dólar (111) and Gallo (113).

Deliveries were staggered across three production tranches: 17 Tranche 1 aircraft between 2003 and 2007, 34 Tranche 2 aircraft between 2008 and 2016 and 20 Tranche 3 aircraft between 2015 and 2020. In April or May 2012 — the sources differ on the month — the first C.16s of Ala 14 reached Albacete and were assigned to 142 Squadron (callsign Dardo), where they replaced the Mirage F1: the veteran fighter flew its last alert duty in October that year, the Eurofighter took over the alert in February 2013, and the F1 was formally retired on 23 June 2013. In September 2017 the C.16 also joined 141 Squadron (callsign Chico), and in January 2020 the last aircraft of the original order arrived at the wing. Ala 14 operates 31 Typhoons across its two squadrons.

The Eurofighter's first fatal accident with any air force happened at Morón on 24 August 2010, when a two-seat trainer crashed during a training sortie: the student, a Saudi pilot, was killed and the Spanish instructor ejected. In 2020, runway works at Los Llanos forced Ala 14's Eurofighters to move to Morón for more than three months, in two successive phases of 18 and then around twenty aircraft; the return was completed in November, and the project included a new Safran retractable arresting cable with a budget of just over 1.5 million euros.

The C.16's first operational deployment abroad came in the first four months of 2015, when Ala 11 deployed to Ämari (Estonia) for NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission after taking part in the Frisian Flag exercise at Leeuwarden. In 2017 eight Typhoons from Ala 11 and Ala 14 flew to Red Flag in Nevada — the first time the Spanish Eurofighter was chosen ahead of the F-18 for that exercise — and Ala 14 returned in 2020. The Albacete C.16s have also covered allied air policing in Lithuania (2016 and 2021), Bulgaria and Estonia (2022) and Romania (2024), while the Morón aircraft served at Šiauliai between April and September 2018. In June and July 2024 four Ala 14 Eurofighters completed the first round-the-world flight in the force's history during exercise Pacific Skies.

The CLAEX centre at Torrejón leads the fleet's modernisation: flight-control and human-machine-interface software updates, equipment interchangeable with Tranche 2 and 3 for the Tranche 1 aircraft, IFF, the Litening III pod and air-to-ground weapons such as the Mk 83 and GBU-48. The aircraft has thirteen external stations and employs AMRAAM, AIM-9L, IRIS-T and Meteor missiles, JDAM and Paveway II guided bombs and a 27 mm Mauser cannon; in November 2023 the integration of the Brimstone missile was announced, and in September 2025 the first nationally developed software for the Tranche 2 and 3 aircraft. On 14 December 2021 the Council of Ministers authorised Project Halcón to replace the Gando F/A-18s, confirmed on 24 June 2022 as an order for 20 Tranche 4 aircraft (16 single-seat and 4 two-seat) with an electronically scanned radar. In September 2023 the Halcón II programme added 25 more aircraft (21 single-seat and 4 two-seat) to replace the EF-18M, with the contract signed with NETMA on 20 December 2024. According to the source consulted, the first Eurofighters for Ala 46, drawn from Ala 14, were scheduled for 26 June 2026.