On August 15, 2022, the official ceremony of handing over the first Eurofighter Typhoon fighter to the Qatar Air Force, out of 24 of these aircraft ordered by Qatar under the 2017 contract, took place at the enterprise of the BAE Systems Corporation in Wharton (Great Britain). The ceremony was attended by British Defense Ministers Ben Wallace and Qatar Khalid bin Mohammad Al-Attiyah. The first transferred single-seat fighter (serial number MS001, Qatari tail number QA404, temporary British military number ZR505) is scheduled to fly to its base in Qatar at the end of August.
The first Eurofighter Typhoon fighter received by the Qatar Air Force (serial number MS001, Qatari tail number QA404, temporary British military number ZR505), built at the enterprise of the BAE Systems Corporation in Wharton (Great Britain), August 2022 (c) BAE Systems
The first Eurofighter Typhoon fighter transferred to the Qatar Air Force (serial number MS001, Qatari tail number QA404, temporary British military number ZR505) was built on the assembly line of the BAE Systems enterprise in Wharton and made its first flight there on November 25, 2021. Delivery of all 24 ordered Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft to the Qatar Air Force is expected by the end of 2023. Eurofighter Typhoon fighters manufactured for Qatar correspond mainly to the Tranche 3A modification.
Recall that in December 2017, intergovernmental contracts were signed between the UK and Qatar with a total value of about 6 billion pounds for the supply of 24 Eurofighter Typhoon multifunctional fighters to Qatar, as well as six (later the order was increased to nine) Hawk Mk 167 combat training aircraft. BAE Systems is the lead contractor of the contracts. Of the value of the contracts, about 1 billion pounds will be supplied from the UK with guided aviation weapons, including MBDA Meteor air-to-air missiles, MBDA Brimstone 2 air-to-surface missiles and UK Raytheon Paveway IV guided aerial bombs. Under the contract, BAE Systems should also organize a new technical college in Doha to train the technical staff of the Qatar Air Force.
According to the intergovernmental agreement, the Royal British Air Force has created a joint Joint Operational Squadron (JOS) with the Qatari side to train Qatari flight and ground personnel for Eurofighter Typhoon fighters, which is "temporarily integrated into the squadron." The squadron was established in July 2018 at the British Coningsby Air Base by relocating there and reorganizing the 12th Squadron of the Royal Air Force of Great Britain, which was previously based at Marham Airfield and was equipped with Tornado GR.4A aircraft. In the process of being reorganized into JOS, the 12th Squadron was re-equipped with Typhoon fighters of the oldest Tranche 1 modification from the British Air Force. According to the British Ministry of Defense, as of November 2021, the squadron was training 20 Qatari pilots for Typhoon fighters.
In addition, as part of the supplementary agreement on the training of Qatari flight personnel for Eurofighter Typhoon fighters, the formation of a joint British-Qatari training squadron (Joint Qatar Emiri Air Force-RAF Hawk Training Squadron) at the British Leeming Airbase was provided, complete with nine Hawk Mk 167 aircraft ordered by Qatar. The first two Hawk Mk 167 aircraft built for Qatar At the BAE Systems enterprise in Bro in East Yorkshire, joined this squadron on September 1, 2021, the squadron was activated on November 24, 2021.
The Eurofighter Typhoon has become the third type of modern multifunctional fighter acquired by Qatar. In May 2015, Qatar signed a contract worth 6.3 billion euros for the purchase of 24 French Dassault Rafale fighters (18 single-seat Rafale EQ and six two-seat Rafale DQ), and in December 2017 transferred an option for the purchase of 12 more Rafale aircraft to a firm contract. In June 2017, Qatar also signed an agreement with the United States worth about $ 12 billion for the acquisition of 36 Boeing F-15QA multi-role fighters through FMS (while Qatar's plans extended to the purchase of 72 F-15QA aircraft). Thus, Qatar has so far ordered 96 modern multifunctional fighters of three types. Deliveries of Rafale fighters to Qatar were launched in June 2019 and will be made until the end of 2022. Deliveries of F-15QA fighters to Qatar were html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">started in August 2021, the completion of deliveries of all 36 aircraft is planned by the end of 2023.
Qatar became the fourth customer of Eurofighter Typhoon fighters in the Persian Gulf region after Saudi Arabia (which received 72 aircraft built by BAE Systems in 2009-2017), Oman (which signed a contract for the purchase of 12 aircraft from BAE Systems, deliveries were made in 2017-2018), and Kuwait (which ordered 28 aircraft, deliveries of which are carried out from the Italian production line Leonardo and were launched in December 2021), and in general Qatar became the ninth operator of these fighters.
The first Eurofighter Typhoon fighter received by the Qatar Air Force (serial number MS001, Qatari tail number QA404, temporary British military number ZR505), built at the enterprise of the BAE Systems Corporation in Wharton (Great Britain), August 2022 (c) BAE Systems