2023-11-24 07:32:12
Published on Nov. 24, 2023 at 6:32 a.m.
Times are a bit tough in Manching north of Munich. It is there on the main German military aircraft manufacturing site that Airbus produces the Eurofighter Typhoon and maintains Luftwaffe aircraft (Tornado, Eurofighter, A400M, Awacs). A week ago, unions and management of the Airbus group took part in a day of actions to demand that the skills of the German military aeronautical industry be maintained.
There were more than 3,000 people demonstrating on the site to ask the government for more visibility on orders, while the special fund of 100 billion euros was mainly used to buy planes (P8 and F-35) and helicopters (Chinook) to Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Some 7,000 people, including 5,500 Airbus employees, work at Manching, which is home to one of Europe’s largest test tracks.
A desired but blocked plane
The staff is all the more worried that the European fighter plane, whose central fuselage is produced in Manching, is going through a difficult period. Berlin is blocking its exports and has still not lifted the veto put in 2018 on the sale of 48 new Typhoons to Saudi Arabia. For the moment, Germany is also not prepared to say yes to Turkey’s request for 40 Eurofighters. Finally, internally, the government does not seem to have provided the budget necessary to order a fifth tranche of fighter planes for the Luftwaffe.
Military advisor at Airbus Defense and Space, General Antoine Noguier explains that Airbus, like Dassault with the Rafale, wishes to work on a fifth version of its fighter, before switching to the new Future Air Combat System (SCAF), developed in cooperation between France, Germany and Spain.
Airbus therefore wishes to obtain an order for a Eurofighter LTE (Long-Term Evolution) to be delivered from 2030 to 2040, in order to maintain its production line and begin research between piloted aircraft and unpiloted drones.
The challenge of maintaining skills
So far, to replace its aging fleet of 80 Tornado fighters by 2030, Berlin has ordered 35 F-35 planes from Lockheed Martin and promised Airbus the purchase of 15 Eurofighters. Insufficient. Airbus therefore hopes that Berlin will favor German military aeronautics for the rest. Because in Manching, the final assembly line for the Typhoon only restarted on June 30, after more than three years of closure, due to lack of follow-up on orders from Berlin.
To the great relief of Airbus, the first examples of the 38 new Typhoons to be delivered between 2025 and 2028 are finally on the line. “We were able to restart production, because we had managed to keep the talent, but today, the competition for skills has become so fierce that we would probably not succeed,” warns Gerold Becker, responsible for the production.
London is getting impatient
In London, BAE Systems, which manufactures the front and rear parts of the fuselage, suffers from the same syndrome. The British group was counting on the Saudi order, but the German veto endangers its production. Moreover, tired of waiting, Saudi Arabia has just brought Dassault into the fray. In mid-November, the group submitted an offer for the sale of 54 Rafale aircraft.
In Berlin, the lines are beginning to shift, with some arguing that in the current situation, Saudi Arabia has a role to play in ensuring stability in the Middle East. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is said to be in favor of lifting the embargo. Airbus, and especially the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, hopes that the coalition government will evolve before the next elections in 2025.
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