What is keeping a non-stealth fighter relevant in a low-observability-based era?
The solution that Eurofighter Typhoon has been giving in the last 20 years is simple and straightforward: use the structure of the jet as the stable element and re-invent virtually all other elements. The Typhoon came as a fast, high-performance interceptor, but has been progressively evolved into a multi-role aircraft, the war capability of which no longer depends on an aeronautical airframe but on sensors, processing, electronic warfare, and the integration of weapons. Such a plan is one reason why operators are still planning around Typhoon long after many legacy fighters have become old.
It does not matter that the physical starting point of the platform does not matter. Making use of 70% carbon-fiber composites, powered by the Eurojet 2000, the Typhoon was to be designed on a high thrust-to-weight ratio and high-end maneuvering, with a top speed of about Mach 2. The base of what is to be added later is a robust kinematics and a robust airframe that accommodates any additional features such as new radar modes, enhanced fusion, new datalinks, and weapons that enhance the range of the aircraft. Practically, it translates to a jet that was initially designed to defend the sky being able to shift occupations without altering its shape.
The most evident aspect of the evolution has been weapon growth. The air to air tactics, which have been extended by Meteor, include extending the range of the missile by the crews as they say there is “no escape.” On the attack side, Storm Shadow introduced a long-range, precision, air-launched vehicle based on BROACH warhead and multi-mode navigation, and Brimstone II a compact, all-weather, millimeter-wave-guided vehicle informed by the realities of fast moving targets. The concept of the “swing-role” of the Typhoon, between air-to-air and air-to-ground work, is based on this type of mixed loadout, as well as the software routes that allow it to be used at pace.
The larger one is the sensor-and-magnetic layer which is currently being fastened.
In the UK, the replacement of the Captor-M, which is a mechanically scanned radar by the ECRS Mk2 AESA radar is the key to that change. Mk2 is a design which employs more than 1000 transmit/receive modules and is designed to steer and refocus its scan at a fast rate, as well as provide refined electronic warfare and electronic attack features without attaching additional external hardware to the jet. The initial Typhoon equipped with the new radar took flight in September 2024, and the strategy was based on 40 RAF Tranche 3 aircraft. The radar modernisation also would be in line with what has already been inclined by the Typhoon- active radar performance with passive sensing like the PIRATE infrared search-and-track system, to make it hard to have an opponent hide behind low signatures.
Throughout the larger program, survivability upgrades are shifting to the data-centric sensing and jamming as opposed to the “warning and dispense” options. EuroDASS has described a next-generation, form-fit development of the Praetorian defensive suite, with Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM) capability, and external electronic-attack expansion, but with the same outer line of the model and flight envelope. That direction has been already backed by flight activity, where component technologies have been flown in 2023 and further tests are being undertaken in 2024.
The Typhoon roadmap of Germany indicates that the next step in this “rebuild the internals” model could be an electronic-attack and reconnaissance EK pairing Saab with Arexis hardware and Helsing with Cirra processing, which will see faster detection, classification, and response to emitters using onboard computing. It is not branding, it is that Typhoon is being forced further into the competitive electromagnetic space with architectures that are meant to be iterated.
The line of thought is simple. The relevance of Typhoon is not pegged to the realization of being a new form of aircraft, but rather pegged to turning its sensors, jammers, and weapons around quicker than the threats surrounding it.
