Eurofighter Typhoon Tranche 3 / 3A

Tranche 3 is based on late Tranche 2 aircraft with improvements added, and was split into parts A and B. The first single-seater was due for delivery in mid-2014. These aircraft have a strengthened spine, with adapters for conformal fuel tanks visible as small bulges, and a strengthened nose able to carry the heavier CAPTOR-E radar. The fuel dumping system moved beneath the wings. Some three hundred and fifty parts were reworked in total to provide more processing, cooling, data transmission and electrical power capacity. The Tranche 3 contract also co-funded the Common Obsolescence Removal Programme, intended to address obsolescence in some Tranche 2 and 3 avionics boxes. In software terms Tranche 2 and 3 are identical, so Tranche 3 aircraft fly with the P1EA and P1EB packages. The batch has three blocks: block 20 provides the ability to carry two conformal fuel tanks — in February 2013 the figure quoted was 4,500 pounds of additional fuel, while wind tunnel testing from April 2014 referred to two 1,500-litre tanks; block 25, corresponding to Phase A, introduces the Meteor missile, the Storm Shadow cruise missile and the Taurus option, alongside the expected CAPTOR-E, the two-way data link for Meteor allowing the weapon to be reprogrammed in flight, high-speed radar-to-radar communication and use of the electronically scanned array as a jammer; and block 30, corresponding to Phase B, remained under negotiation with the emphasis on suppression of enemy air defences, anti-ship missiles, glide bombs and reconnaissance pods, among them the DB-110 and the AREOS. The final Tranche 3A aircraft was delivered in 2019 to Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, and in 2020 to Spain.