Germany Suspends Eurofighter Deliveries Due to Quality Problems
By Lars Hoffman 4:50 p.m. EDT October 13, 2015



GOTTINGEN, Germany — The German Air Force has temporarily suspended delivery of Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets following the discovery of quality problems involving the connection between the vertical stabilizers and the body of the aircraft.

In a notification to the German Bundestag, the Ministry of Defence said that drillings and the removal of burr were not conducted according to specifications.

The Typhoon suffered a similar problem last year when Germany, Italy and Spain all halted deliveries of the jet after a number of drilled bolt holes in a different part of the rear fuselage were identified as having not been de-burred satisfactorily.

The Eurofighter consortium confirmed that it had now found a new manufacturing quality problem on the aircraft.

"A manufacturing non-conformance has been identified during the assembly of the fin to the rear fuselage of the aircraft manufactured to date. The topic is related to the holes drilled for four of the bolts that connect the fins to the rear fuselages," Eurofighter said in a statement.

Consortium member BAE Systems is responsible for the manufacture of parts involved in last year's problem, as well as the current issue.

The consortium, which involves Airbus Defence and Space, BAE Systems, and Finmeccanica, said the problem does not affect aircraft flight safety and therefore there will be no operational or life-time limitations to the Typhoon.

A spokesman for the German MoD stressed that while flight safety is not affected in the short run, long-time effects were possible. Acceptance of delivery at this point could impact warranty claims, he said.

The MoD note to the Bundestag said that it could not be ruled out that the structure of the fast jet and the bolted connections in the specified area may be damaged.

Experts of the Bundeswehr, the NATO agency NETMA and industry are analyzing the problem. According to the MoD, all of the German Eurofighters delivered from tranche 1 through to the current 3A standard are affected.

All German Eurofighters in service are being closely monitored and operations of the German fleet are not expected to be affected, said the MoD.

The British Ministry of Defence said it was continuing to accept deliveries and operate the aircraft as normal. At this point it is unknown whether other Eurofighter nations will follow the German lead and halt deliveries.

Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain are the core partners in the Typhoon program. Export customers Austria and Saudi Arabia already operate the jet. Oman also has ordered the aircraft, and Kuwait recently said it would purchase 24 Typhoons but has not yet signed a final contract.

http://www.defensenews.com/story/def...lems/73871500/

German army reveals new fault in problem-plagued Eurofighter
AFP – Wed, Oct 14, 2015



Germany's army on Wednesday confirmed yet another problem with Eurofighter combat planes, a day after it said it was suspending deliveries of the aircraft over a technical flaw.

An army spokesman said the external fuel tank of one of the jets fell off as it was preparing for takeoff last week.

"The aircraft was immobilised and tests are under way," the spokesman, Roman Ladenko, told AFP, confirming a report in the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

As a result of the incident, which occurred at an air base in Estonia, the army had stopped Eurofighters from flying unless their external fuel tanks were removed.

"That's a problem because without these external tanks, our fighter planes do not have sufficient autonomy to fly over the Baltic Sea," Ladenko said.

On Tuesday the army said it was halting Eurofighter deliveries over a technical fault in the fuselage.The Eurofighter consortium on Wednesday told AFP that there was indeed a "non-conformity" issue with four drill holes on the back of the fuselage.

Nevertheless, the group's spokesman Theodor Benien said the issue had "not affected the safety of aircraft delivered to our customers". The Eurofighter Typhoon is Europe's largest collaborative defence programme -- a partnership between Italy's Finmeccanica, Britain's BAE Systems and European aerospace group Airbus.

But its woes have allowed its competitors -- Boeing's Super Hornet F18 and France's Dassault Rafale -- to pick up several major orders.

In what might be another blow for the European consortium, the newspaper Die Welt reported on Wednesday that the group's plans to develop a new radar for the plane were facing several months of delay.

The plan for a new radar was announced officially only in November 2014, but it is already running "five months late" with a budget overrun of about 80 million euros, the newspaper reported, quoting a confidential report of the German defence ministry. Germany's defence minister, Ursula von der Leyen, has declined comment on the report.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/german-arm...2.html#0q6rwal