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Qatar Air Force took back the first Typhoon

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The first Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft intended for the Qatar air force officially went to buyers. The handover ceremony for the machine, bearing number QA404 / ZR505, was held on August 15 at BAE Systems’ facility in Warton, Lancashire. The first batch of Qatari Typhoons are expected to hit their new homeland later this month. Fighters are to protect Qatari airspace during the World Cup finals held in this country, which begins on November 21.

Qatar ordered twenty-four Typhoons in December 2017, including four two-seater, and with them also nine school-training Hawks Mk 167. The contract is worth £ 6 billion. Under the contract, an agreement was concluded with MBDA for the supply of the Meteor air-to-air and Brimstone air-to-ground missiles and Paveway IV guided bombs. The QA404 is the first British-made Typhoon equipped with the Leonardo European Common Radar Standard (ECSR) Mk 0 AESA class radar (also used in the Kuwaiti Typhoons made in Italy).

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The ZR505 was flown on November 25 last year. In May 2022, it was observed in the colors of the Qatar Air Force. Four more copies are already queued to be handed over to the end user, with consecutive numbers from QA405 to QA408. These fighters were flown from January 12 to June 17 this year. Interestingly, no two-seater specimens have not been tested yet.

The British are giving Qatar comprehensive assistance in bringing the Typhoons into service. The Qatari Hawks are stationed in RAF Leeming (seven have been officially handed over so far, the remaining two have already passed the flight) under the aegis of a mixed school squadron inaugurated in November 2021. The training in Leeming is to be completed each year by eight Qatari pilots.

As part of the intergovernmental agreement, a mixed 12th Squadron from RAF Coningsby was also created, in which pilots from Great Britain and Qatar serve together. Earlier, for a quarter of a century, the 12th Squadron (Bombowa) flew on Tornadoes – it ended its operation in December 2017. The squadron was recreated in 2018 as the first mixed unit of the British Air Force since the end of World War II. The first Qatar people were sent there in June 2020. If, for some reason, the Typhoon deliveries failed, it would be the 12th Squadron that would be responsible for securing Qatar’s skies during the championship.

Pilots of the 12th Squadron.
(Cpl Babbs Robinson / UK Ministry of Defense 2020)

The Typhoon acquisition is part of a comprehensive program to modernize the Qatari Air Force, apparently under the slogan: who will prohibit the rich? Also in 2017, thirty-six Boeing F-15QA Ababils were ordered – a version developed specifically for Qatar aviation but essentially identical to the F-15EX (the name Ababil itself is taken from the Koran). The first machine was delivered in October last year.

As if that were not enough, Qatar ordered twenty-four Dassault Rafale EQ / DQ fighters in 2015, and a year later another twelve. The twenty-seventh copy was recently delivered. By the way, France has sold military planes to Qatar many times in the past. The deliveries included Alpha Jets, Mirage F1 and Mirage 2000.

Qatar also focused on the diversification of training and training aircraft and, along with the Hawks, also ordered six Italian M-346 Masters. A representative of the Leonardo concern confirmed this transaction after three planes appeared at the air parade on the occasion of the completion of training by another year of pilots. The sale of the planes to Qatar was part of a wider agreement with Qatar that also included the training of Qatar pilots in Italy at the International Flight Training School. Although the planes took part in a parade in Qatar, it is speculated that they may be stationed in Italy on a daily basis.

Doha is also known to have an appetite for F-35A. Qatar is one of the most important allies of the United States in the region. About 8,000 American soldiers are stationed there. However, his relationship with his neighbors is complex and contradictory. Qatar is in dispute with all Arab nations, especially Saudi Arabia – another major US partner – which has even closed the skies to Qatar Airways planes. Therefore, its planes fly a detour over Iran, paying it hundreds of millions of dollars a year for it, which in turn does not please the Americans.

Qatar’s dream about Lightning II is unlikely to come true, and certainly not in the coming years. As soon as the case appeared in the media, Israel announced that it would oppose the transaction. The US doctrine with regard to the Middle East assumes that arms sales must allow Israel to maintain a qualitative advantage to balance the numerical superiority of the Arab states.

Of course, ninety-six modern multi-role combat aircraft (plus it is not known how many hypothetical F-35As) is an absurd number for a country with 3 million inhabitants, of which less than 400,000 are citizens and the rest – foreigners. Let us not even mention the area roughly equal to the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. The Qatari authorities have made no secret of the fact that such extensive purchases are primarily political. It is about providing support among the Western powers in the event that the conflict with Saudi Arabia brings both countries back to the brink of war.

See also: French National Gendarmerie investigators will investigate Russian crimes in Ukraine

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