Key Factors
- Airbus Defence confirmed the rollout of the primary Halcon I Eurofighter for Spain at its Getafe facility in Madrid, with first engine run and maiden flight preparations underway.
- All 20 Halcon I Eurofighters will carry E-Scan AESA radar and Full Meteor missile functionality, with deliveries to the Spanish Air Power starting in 2026.
The primary Eurofighter constructed beneath Spain’s Halcon I program has rolled out of the manufacturing facility at Getafe, Madrid, with Airbus Defence and Area confirming that the plane is prepared for its first engine run and maiden flight, marking the arrival of a brand new technology of European air fight functionality on the Spanish Air Power’s flight line.
Airbus posted the announcement on Monday, confirming that the plane rolled out at its Getafe facility, which sits roughly 15 kilometers (9 miles) south of Madrid and has assembled, examined, and delivered each Spanish Eurofighter because the nation first operated the sort in 2003.
The rollout marks the bodily completion of the primary plane within the 20-jet Halcon I order that Spain signed in June 2022, making it the primary Eurofighter Tranche 4 scheduled for supply to a Spanish squadron. Deliveries of the total 20-aircraft Halcon I batch are deliberate to start in 2026, with the Spanish Air Power Chief of Employees, Basic Francisco Braco Carbó, confirming that the primary three plane will probably be delivered to the fleet this yr.
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The Halcon I Eurofighters carry a configuration that represents a generational step past the plane Spain has operated since 2003. Probably the most vital improve is the E-Scan radar, an Lively Electronically Scanned Array that replaces the mechanically rotating antenna of older Eurofighter variants with a set array of tons of of particular person transmit-receive modules, every able to pointing and shaping the radar beam electronically with out transferring elements. An AESA radar can monitor a number of targets concurrently, swap between air-to-air and air-to-ground modes in milliseconds, function with a lot decrease chance of interception by enemy digital warfare programs, and carry out digital assault capabilities in opposition to adversary sensors {that a} mechanical radar can’t. The Halcon I plane may also carry the Full Meteor missile, a ramjet-powered air-to-air weapon with a variety of over 100 kilometers (62 miles) that considerably exceeds the attain of the AMRAAM missiles carried by older Eurofighter variants, and the Brimstone III air-to-ground precision missile.
The 20 Halcon I plane will change the F-18 Hornet fleet operated from the Gando air base within the Canary Islands, the Spanish archipelago sitting roughly 100 kilometers off the northwest coast of Africa, which is geographically positioned because the southwesternmost level of NATO territory within the Atlantic. That location offers the plane based mostly there a surveillance and air protection function masking the approaches to the Strait of Gibraltar and the japanese Atlantic transport lanes, in addition to offering protection for the Canary Islands themselves, which sit inside vary of potential threats from the African continent. The F-18s presently stationed at Gando are getting old towards retirement, and the Halcon I Eurofighters are the plane the Spanish navy has chosen to take care of credible air protection protection of that strategic place.
Spain’s complete Eurofighter dedication has grown considerably because the authentic Halcon I order. In December 2024, Spain signed a second contract masking 25 further plane beneath the Halcon II program, bringing the entire Spanish Eurofighter order since 2022 to 45 plane and the projected complete Spanish fleet to 115 jets when all deliveries are full. The Halcon II plane will be part of the Halcon I jets in changing the F-18 fleet throughout the Spanish Air Power’s three Eurofighter wings, with the identical E-Scan radar, Meteor missile compatibility, and improved connectivity options throughout each batches.
The Eurofighter Hurricane itself has been in steady manufacturing and improvement because the first plane entered service in 2003, with successive tranches incorporating progressively extra succesful avionics, sensors, and weapons. The Tranche 4 plane that Spain is receiving beneath Halcon I represents the present manufacturing commonplace, incorporating the E-Scan radar as a baseline match moderately than a retrofit, together with redesigned cockpit shows, an improved digital warfare suite, and the total spectrum of present and deliberate Eurofighter weapons compatibility. The plane’s Eurojet EJ200 engines, every producing roughly 90 kilonewtons (20,230 kilos) of thrust in afterburner, give the Hurricane a thrust-to-weight ratio that permits sustained supersonic cruise with out afterburner, a functionality known as supercruise that few fighters in service can match and that the F-18 can’t carry out.
