New fighter jets

Italian favorite: Austrian Armed Forces examine concrete offer

Leonardo's M-346FA with radar for air surveillance, but also ground support, is the favorite of the red-white-red armed forces.

(Bild: Leonardo)

The Austrian Armed Forces are continuing to arm themselves and now the purchase of new fighter jets is also becoming more concrete. As the "Krone" has learned, Minister Klaudia Tanner (ÖVP) has instructed the General Staff to examine ONE offer. And it comes from Italy ...

After the Saab 105 jets had to be retired due to their age, Defense Minister Tanner ordered the purchase of new jet trainers to be examined in 2022. In addition to training tasks, these should also be able to perform air surveillance and air defense tasks and thus be armed.

Favorite from Italy
1.6 billion euros will be spent on the purchase of a completely new, second jet fleet, among other things. The favorite comes from Italy. 

The M346 from the Italian manufacturer Leonardo is equipped with radar in an "FA" version and is also optimized for air-to-ground combat. The relationship with Leonardo is currently excellent, with a further batch of AW-169 multi-role helicopters being procured from the Italians as recently as 2022.

Purchase as a joint project
The Italian Ministry of Defense has now sent a letter stating that the aircraft could be purchased as part of a joint procurement cooperation, comparable to a government-to-government procurement. 

Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner

(Bild: P. Huber)

The Minister has therefore instructed the Directorate General of the Presidency to legally examine the specific requirements for a joint procurement cooperation and instructed the General Staff to enter into talks with Italy if all requirements are met. Accompanying monitoring of the award was also ordered to ensure that all compliance regulations are observed.

Federal Minister Klaudia Tanner: "I would like to thank my counterpart, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, for this offer of further cooperation and promise a swift review. In the last few years of my term of office, joint procurement cooperation has proven to be an excellent, transparent and frictionless instrument for the procurement of military equipment, as we have seen in the procurement of the Leonardo AW-169 helicopters and the Embraer C-390 transport aircraft. Such procurements only work on the basis of the utmost trust."

Jets return to Linz
According to army officials, Linz-Hörsching is the only possible location for the new subsonic jets: from a purely political point of view, it would hardly be possible to handle all of the army's jet operations in Zeltweg, where the Eurofighters already take off daily from the Murtal for their training and surveillance flights, due to the noise development.