Home Air Germany’s Hensoldt to lead €1.5bn Eurofighter AESA radar development

Germany’s Hensoldt to lead €1.5bn Eurofighter AESA radar development

Photo: Hensoldt

German sensor system supplier Hensoldt has been awarded a contract by Airbus Defence and Space to deliver the active electronic scanning array (AESA) radar upgrade for the German and Spanish Eurofighter fleets.

The project is jointly financed by the Eurofighter partner nations Spain and Germany, who will also be the first users of the radar in their fleets. Following budget approval by the Spanish government and most recently by the German Bundestag in mid-June, the contracts worth over 1.5 billion euros have now been signed.

The Airbus sites in Manching, Germany and Getafe, Spain will act as overall integration hub, while the development and building of the radar is subcontracted to a consortium under the leadership of Hensoldt and Indra and by participation of further Eurofighter partner companies.

“The fact that Germany and Spain are taking a pioneering role in the modernization of the Eurofighter is a signal of confidence in European defense cooperation,” said Hensoldt CEO Thomas Müller. “This decision ensures that our armed forces will continue to be able to fulfill their mission in the future while being protected in the best possible way.”

The contracts cover the German-Spanish new development of core components of the Eurofighter radar – including a digital multi-channel receiver and transmitter/receiver modules of the antenna – and the equipping of approximately 130 Eurofighter aircraft of tranches two and three.

The contract foresees the delivery and integration of 110 Captor-E radars for Germany and an initial batch of 5 radars for Spain to be delivered by 2023.

The development is being carried out by a Spanish-German industrial consortium under German leadership with the support of the Eurofighter nations Great Britain and Italy.