The Spanish Air Force increases its combat and maritime surveillance capabilities
- 20 new Eurofighters by 2030 and another 25 by 2035
- Saving lives and combating illegal maritime trafficking
The Chief of Staff of the Air and Space Force (JEMA), General Francisco Braco, has revealed that the Spanish Air Force will take delivery of a total of six new aircraft in the first months of 2026: three Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets and three C295 VIGMA maritime surveillance aircraft, and that he is confident in the continuity of the NGWS/FCAS programme for the future European air combat system.
In a briefing to review the achievements made in 2025, the overseas missions that remain active, and to highlight the importance of adding new capabilities to renew the air fleets in 2026, the head of the Spanish Air Force made it clear to the senior commanders of the military organisation he leads that, in the current geopolitical scenario, aerospace power is ‘essential and irreplaceable’.
The JEMA has informed the Air Force leadership that, with the arrival of the new year, Airbus Spain is scheduled to deliver the first three Eurofighter fighters in tranche 4 configuration, the most advanced of the existing ones, to the Air and Space Force. These aircraft are part of the Halcón programme, a purchase staged by the Secretary of State for Defence, Amparo Valcarce, in June 2022 at the ILA Aerospace Show in Berlin, which includes the purchase of 20 aircraft from NETMA (NATO Eurofighter 2000 and Tornado Management Agency), the last of which will be delivered in 2030.
Coming from one of the factories in the huge Airbus industrial complex in Getafe (Madrid), where the Spanish Eurofighters are assembled, the first three Typhoon Tranche 4 aircraft will land at Los Llanos Air Base (Albacete), where they will be received by personnel from the Directorate General of Armament and Material and Wing 14, into whose aircraft fleet they will be integrated.
20 new Eurofighters by 2030 and another 25 by 2035
Months after the arrival of the new Eurofighters in Albacete, around July, once the necessary administrative procedures have been completed, three Typhoons from Wing 14 in tranche 3 configuration will fly to Gando Air Base on the island of Gran Canaria, where they will join Squadron 462 of Wing 46.
Once in the Canary Islands, they will replace the same number of veteran F-18s from Wing 46 that have been in service since the mid-1980s, as they were the first to be purchased second-hand from the United States Navy under the Future Fighter and Attack Aircraft (FACA) programme, a Spanish Ministry of Defence programme in the late 1970s that sought to acquire a fourth-generation fighter for the then Air Force.
When the Eurofighters assigned to the Canary Islands base in Gando are completed in 2030, they will add their tactical potential to that of their counterparts deployed at the bases in Morón (Wing 11), Torrejón (Wing 12), Zaragoza (Wing 15) and Albacete (Wing 14). The next step will be the gradual delivery, until 2035, of the 25 aircraft in the Halcón II programme, which will replace the F-18s deployed in Torrejón (Madrid) and Zaragoza, bringing the Spanish fighter fleet to a total of 115 Eurofighters.
The Typhoons already in service in their Tranche 2 and 3 versions incorporate new software developed in Spain by the Armament and Experimentation Logistics Centre (CLAEX). The improvements introduced have already been evaluated operationally and provide numerous enhancements to the fighters' combat capabilities, for example, the firing of Meteor air-to-air missiles.
Saving lives and combating illegal maritime trafficking
The Airbus C295 maritime surveillance or VIGMA aircraft are fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on short, unprepared runways. They are a commercial success for the Spanish branch of Airbus, as evidenced by the fact that nearly 300 units have been manufactured, most of which are in service in nearly 40 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and America.
They are the successor to the CN-295 VIGMA, veteran aircraft that began service in 2008 on missions to monitor the Exclusive Economic Zone, search and rescue (SAR), and combat smuggling, illegal immigration, drug trafficking and other illegal maritime trafficking activities.
The C295 is an aircraft model whose design and engineering work is carried out at the Airbus facilities in Getafe (Madrid), the structures are manufactured at the company's plant in Tablada (Seville) and its integration takes place on the final assembly line in San Pablo, also in the capital of Andalusia.
In the context of the German-French-Spanish initiative for the future sixth-generation FCAS fighter aircraft, General Braco assures that it is a ‘very ambitious and challenging programme, which we are very excited about and will continue to pursue’. His view is that, despite the differences of opinion between Dassault Aviation and Airbus GmbH, the disagreements between the industrial partners are on the way to being resolved.
Everything points to the fact that the highest political authorities in Germany, France and Spain are not willing to let the European project end in failure, which is why General Braco is confident that ‘an agreement will be reached before 2025 to begin the next important phase of FCAS development’, which within the Air and Space Force has come to be known as ASTRA.