Eurofighter Typhoon Tranche 3A
Wired for the future — provision for AESA radar and conformal tanks, and the first E-scan exports · Ordered 2009 · First flight 2013
Tranche 3 was split in two, and only the first part was ordered: on 31 July 2009 NETMA signed the Tranche 3A contract for 112 aircraft — 40 for the UK, 31 for Germany, 21 for Italy and 20 for Spain. Tranche 3B was later cancelled. Externally similar to earlier Typhoons, the 3A aircraft have fibre-optic data cabling, a computer upgrade and the provisions needed for an electronically scanned (AESA) radar and conformal fuel tanks.
The first RAF Tranche 3 jet, ZK355 (BS116), began flight testing from Warton in late 2013. In January 2024 the same aircraft became the first fitted with the RAF's ECRS Mk2 radar. Germany's final Tranche 3A Typhoon, 31+53, left Manching in December 2019.
Export customers took the AESA radar from the start: Kuwait signed for 28 Tranche 3 Typhoons on 5 April 2016, and its batch was the first series production to receive the CAPTOR-E (ECRS Mk0) radar on the line, with deliveries from 2021. Qatar's 24 Typhoons, ordered in December 2017, followed with deliveries from 2022.
