Over 600 Eurofighter Typhoons have been delivered, with the vast majority remaining in service. Only the UK has started to retire its lower-capability Tranche 1 Eurofighters. Orders for around 100 more Eurofighters have come in over the last year from Germany, Spain, Italy, and Turkey, and more are expected in the future. Far from being on its way out, new life is being breathed into the Eurofighter as more orders are placed with production set to continue into the 2030s.
Not only are existing customers placing orders for more jets, but Portugal and Poland are seen as potential new customers, alongside Turkey, which has just joined the program. The story is somewhat similar to the Dassault Rafale that failed to attract orders for a long time, but has now seen a flurry of orders that have sent Dassault scrambling to ramp up production. Here is what to know about Eurofighter numbers, present, and future.
The Pan-European Fighter Jet
Work on the Eurofighter Typhoon started in the 1970s. France joined the effort in 1979, only to break away in 1981 to develop its own jet, the Dassault Rafale. The United Kingdom, West Germany, Spain, and Italy pressed on with the project. The aircraft first flew in 1994 and entered service in 2003. The joint company Eurofighter GmbH was set up in 1986 to develop the jet.
Eurofighter GmbH is 46% owned by Airbus Defence and Space (then called EADS), 33% by the UK’s BAE Systems, and 21% by Italy’s Leonardo. By country, the United Kingdom and Germany each have a 33% share, Italy has a 21% share, and Spain has a 13% share. It is one of only two modern fighter jets in Europe that can truly be considered a European fighter jet (the other being the Rafale). While substantially all of the Eurofighter’s components are European, around 40% of the Saab Gripen’s components (including the engine) are from the US.
While the Eurofighter is considered an excellent multirole fighter jet and very capable in the air-to-air role, it is also expensive and has failed to attract many buyers in Europe. The only country in Europe to have purchased the jet outside the four-nation consortium is Austria, which purchased 12 limited-capability Tranche 1 Eurofighters.
The United Kingdom Is The First To Scrap Eurofighters
According to the Eurofighter Consortium, a total of 769 Eurofighters have been ordered from ten countries. The jet is expected to remain in production until 2035, when the UK and other nations can switch over to producing the sixth-generation Tempest/GCAP fighter jet. So far, the only country to have scrapped Eurofighters is the United Kingdom, which has been scrapping its Tranche 1 fighter jets. According to answers in the British Parliament, of its 30 Tranche 1 jets, 26 have now been retired, with the final four expected to follow by 2027.
The RAF is then expected to keep its more capable Tranche 2 and 3 Typhoons in service at least until 2040, by which time the Tempest fighter jet should have entered service. The remaining four Tranche 1 Typhoons are stationed at RAF Mount Pleasant to defend the Falkland Islands from any aggression. There, they serve in a quick reaction alert (QRA) role. The remaining 107 RAF Typhoons are made up of 67 Tranche 2 fighters and 40 Tranche 3 fighters.
The UK has been considering purchasing more Typhoons, but for now, it hasn’t placed orders in years and does not have any on order. The country is expected to place more orders for the F-35 Lightning II to bring its F-35 fleet to 72 in the mid-2030s. Fourth-generation fighters like the Typhoon greatly benefit from operating alongside the fifth-generation F-35. In RAF service, the Typhoons are dubbed the “thug” while the F-35 is called the “assassin.”
What To Know About Turkey’s Eurofighter Typhoon Acquisition
If Germany removes its objections, Turkey is planning to purchase 40 Eurofighter Typhoons.
Eurofighters Ordered, Delivered, & Operational
The Eurofighter Consortium says a total of 769 Eurofighters have been ordered, although this may soon be out of date as more countries order the jet. Airbus’ order book for the Eurofighter stands at 741 as of the time of writing. Turkey, Germany, Italy, and Spain are all ordering more Eurofighters, and conflicting lists may reflect the status of these orders.
Of the 741 ordered, Airbus records 613 have been delivered, and 606 are in operation. The Airbus list is as of the end of October 2025. Airbus’ numbers include 15 for Austria. Germany has ordered 181 jets, of which 143 have been delivered, and 141 remain operational. Italy has ordered 112, with 96 delivered and 95 operational, while Spain has ordered 118, with 73 delivered and 70 operational.
|
Eurofighter Typhoon orders, deliveries, and operational jets (per Airbus) |
|
|---|---|
|
Total ordered |
741 |
|
Total ordered per Eurofighter Consortium |
769 |
|
Total delivered |
616 |
|
Total operational |
606 |
When it comes to the United Kingdom, Airbus records that the UK has ordered 159 jets, and all remain operational. It is unclear how to square these numbers with the 26 Tranche 1 jets the UK has retired and the overall numbers given in Parliament. Airbus numbers include the 20 jets Turkey just ordered. In the Middle East, Airbus shows Oman with all 12 jets it ordered, and Qatar with 22 of the 24 it ordered (22 also operational). Kuwait has 28 ordered, of which 21 are delivered and operational. Finally, Saudi Arabia with 72 ordered and delivered, of which 71 are operational.
Over 100 Eurofighters Ordered Recently
In mid-October 2025, Germany became one of the newest countries to place a new order for the Eurofighter – another 20 Tranche 5 fighter jets. These will be assembled in Germany and will be delivered between 2031 and 2034. This was in addition to the 38 it had already ordered as part of Project Quadriga.
Other recent orders include the 25 jets the Spanish Air Force ordered and the 24 the Italian Air Force ordered at the end of 2024. In late October, Turkey finalized an order to purchase 20 Eurofighters from the UK. This was only half of the 40 it was previously rumored to be purchasing, but it finally overcame the German veto on selling the jet to Turkey.
Somewhat confusingly, Airbus stated in a press release, “nine countries have ordered more than 740 Eurofighters, namely Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Austria, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar.” The nine-country list does not include Turkey, which has ordered 20 jets, and appears in the spreadsheet. That spreadsheet also only tallies 741 jets.
Why Spain Selected The Eurofighter To Replace Its F-18s
Spain has placed another order for domestically assembled Eurofighters while still leaving the F-35 question open.
Eurofighter Consortium Expects More Orders
According to a November 2025 article by Breaking Defense, the Eurofighter Typhoon consortium is expecting more orders for the Typhoon to roll in. Eurofighter CEO Jorge Tamarit Degenhardt told Breaking Defense after Turkey’s order, “We start with 20 [aircraft], it might grow even further, and it may have a wake-up call effect with the rest of the nations.” The CEO stated that Turkey may double its order.
Interestingly, Degenhardt said, “We would be expecting all other export campaigns to materialize — Saudi [Arabia], Qatar, Portugal, Austria. Let’s see.” The list of countries is interesting as it excludes the United Kingdom, while including Portugal as a new customer. Following geopolitical tensions, Portugal has said it’s not interested in purchasing the F-35, and so is considering other options. Austria is also surprising, as it was a rather controversial decision in the country to purchase downgraded Tranche 1 jets.
There is potential for Saudi Arabia and Qatar to order more Typhoons. Saudi Arabia has been wanting to purchase more Eurofighters, only for Germany to block the sale for years, although that may have now changed. The Eurofighter Consortium is also pitching the aircraft to a rapidly rearming Poland that is set to start receiving the first of its F-35s. According to Breaking Defense, the Eurofighter Consortium showed an infographic saying the potential Austrian, Polish, Saudi Arabian, and Qatari sales amount to 134 aircraft.
Total Order Book May Reach 900
The Eurofighter has a backlog of 157 jets, and the Consortium is working to ramp up production to reach a rate of 30 a year starting in 2028. This would be over double the current output. Much of the ramp-up depends on export orders. Degenhardt even noted the program could eventually reach a “critical mass of backlog.”
This would be a major turnaround from the British production line for the Eurofighter drying up as the RAF failed to order new jets, and the final examples were handed over to Qatar. If these orders do flow in, then the eventual Eurofighter production may top out at around 900 aircraft. In 2023, the Consortium set a target of selling 150 to 200 new aircraft; at the time, this was seen as unrealistic, but it could yet prove attainable.
For now, around 606 Eurofighter Typhoons remain operational around the world, including the 26 that the British have ostensibly retired. These retired Tranche 1 jets are not expected to be reexported. Instead, the UK is looking to shred and recycle them. There had been discussion over sending them to Ukraine, but this has been dismissed, and Ukraine is getting F-16s, Gripens, Dassault Rafales, and Mirage 2000s instead.
