Austria will receive second hand Eurofighters

When Russia's President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and began a war of aggression with no foreseeable end, many things changed in Austria as well, including the importance given to national defense and the federal army.

Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner soon seized the opportunity and promised more budget for the Bundesheer (Austrian Armed Forces). As a result, 2023 will see a significant increase of the budget with the Bundesheer, when it will be receiving 25% more funding than it did in 2022.

Although, in 1955 Austria issued its Declaration of Neutrality, meaning that it would never join a military alliance, the Russian invasion of Ukraine changed the Austrian demands to improve their short and long term defence capabilities.

Part of the additional money will initially be used to retrofit airspace surveillance with the purchase of three former Luftwaffe (GAF, German Air Force) EF2000(T) two-seat Eurofighters. It is not yet known which German EF2000(T)s are earmarked to be sold to Austria. If you have information, please let us know at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

From 2007, Austria received fifteen single seat EF2000 Eurofighters in a limited Tranche 1 standard with only Basic Air Defence Capability. The Bundesheer together with Airbus Defence and Space are now looking at enhancement options that might include integration of the Rafael Litening-5 targeting pod for night-time air-to-air identification of target aircraft, Raytheon AIM-120-C8 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAMs) for a near-beyond-visual-range (BVR) capability, and missile-approach warning systems.

Photos by Michael Weinberger and Dietmar Fenners (Scramble Archive)