Eurofighter Typhoon Tranche 1

Tranche 1 is the Eurofighter's first production batch. Its aircraft began to be delivered in 2003 and provide the system's baseline capabilities. All of them were raised to block 5 by early 2012 through the R1 and R2 retrofit programmes. The blocks chart the batch's evolution: block 1 set the production hardware standard and flight test instrumentation with baseline capability; block 2 added sensor fusion, a DASS limited to chaff and flares, the PIRATE sensor in FLIR mode only, direct voice input and a basic autopilot, with the AIM-9L, digital ASRAAM, AIM-120B AMRAAM and the gun; block 2B brought a flight control system update giving full air combat capability and basic multirole capability, the Striker helmet, the MIDS data link, additional radar modes, the full DASS, the full PIRATE and the ground collision warning system, plus the analogue IRIS-T; and block 5 added night vision for the Striker helmet, new flight control software, full autopilot, full PIRATE and ground collision warning, and the Paveway II bombs together with the Litening III designator and the air-to-ground gun mode. Germany, Italy and Spain also developed the Drop 1 software package to ease the exchange of line replaceable units, available from 2011; Germany and the United Kingdom followed with Drop 2, available across Tranche 1 from March 2013, which made target presentation more intuitive, showed which sensors contribute to each fused track, extended HOTAS control of the designator pod and improved the DASS software. Drop 3 was expected in late 2014 covering all core programmes, and Drop 4 would improve MIDS and the identification system. The batch's limited processing power imposed real constraints: during a bombing sortie an air target could be located using the electronic warfare systems and engaged with an AMRAAM, but the aircraft could not then revert to air-to-ground mode, a limitation only resolved in Tranche 2 thanks to greater processing power. In 2015 the United Kingdom decided to retain part of its Tranche 1 fleet in order to grow from five to seven front-line squadrons and to push their out-of-service date from 2030 to 2040, although in 2021 the decision was taken to retire them by 2025.