Thread: £40bn Saudi fighter jet deal brings RAF shortage fears

December 30 2005

SAUDI Arabia plans to buy more than 200 Eurofighter Typhoon jets from the UK in a deal worth up to £40bn including spares, maintenance and training over the next 20 years, The Herald has learned.

The deal has been confirmed by Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Arabia's deputy prime minister and defence and aviation chief, although details will not be disclosed until next March.

The news follows the announcement this week that 24 of the second batch of Typhoons already on order for the RAF will be diverted to the Saudi air force from 2008.

RAF insiders fear that selling aircraft to offset the Ministry of Defence's contractual obligations to the Eurofighter consortium will not only reduce the number deployed in UK frontline squadrons, but will also produce a spares shortage when the Saudis are inevitably granted priority of supply.

Despite MoD denials, RAF Tornado jets were left unserviceable in the 1990s in similar circumstances as the Saudis bought more than 100 as a deterrent to Iraq and Iran and demanded first call on spares.

The RAF is committed to buying 232 Eurofighter jets

in fighter and ground-attack versions, with the first squadron due to enter service next year.

Deliveries of the 55 tranche one Typhoons have begun, and the MoD has signed up for 89 more in tranche two. More than 600 of the fighters are in the pipeline for UK, German, Italian and Spanish air forces, who collaborated on the jets' development.

Although more than six years late and £2bn over budget, Typhoon is rated as being able to rival the best US and Russian-built fighter planes. Each RAF jet will cost £45m, in a package worth £19bn.

Prince Sultan, the Sandhurst-trained head of the Saudi military, said at a dinner in Riyadh: "The kingdom will purchase more than 200 Eurofighter Typhoons. We shall disclose the details by next March."

Part of the deal is believed to involve the UK disposing of up to 200 ageing aircraft in the Saudi inventory. Neither BAE Systems, the aircraft's UK manufacturer, nor the MoD is willing to discuss future contracts.

The Tornados were sold as part of the £43bn al Yamamah contract, the UK's biggest defence deal. The sum was paid in oil, which will be the currency for the Typhoon sale.

Although the MoD said this week that the RAF's needs would be unaffected by the deal, few RAF officers believe that all 232 Typhoons on order will see UK service.
The MoD is also committed to buying 150 US Joint Strike Fighters for £9bn, building two aircraft-carriers for £3.8bn and spending huge amounts on other military equipment as the bill for Typhoon tranche three becomes payable.
A senior source told The Herald: "The Saudi deal is a godsend to the bean counters and politicians.

Somewhere down the line, there will be a reassessment of RAF needs, and part of our order will head for the desert without being replaced."