The Quest for Relevant Air Power

196 │ GERMAN Air Force
With the end of the Cold War, the project became highly contentious,
particularly in Germany, where unification costs started
to have an impact upon the defence budget. 293 Germany seriously
threatened to bail out of the common project in the early
1990s, and alternative options to the Eurofighter were being
discussed. 294 Amongst the discussed alternatives were either
American designs, such as the F-16, the F-18, the F-15, and the
F-22, or the Soviet MiG-29. Bailing out would, however, have
caused a considerable loss of trust among Germany’s European
allies. 295 Furthermore, some were concerned that if an American
fighter aircraft were procured, Germany would become fully dependent
upon the United States for any future system upgrades.
296 Moreover, it was recognised that bailing out of the
project would represent a major blow to the German aerospace
industry and would imperil a significant number of jobs as well
as the technological base. 297
In the early 1990s, future GAF Eurofighters were conceived solely
for the air-to-air role, and Germany indicated that it would commit
itself to a specific number of aircraft only at later stages in the programme,
and then closer to 140 than 250, as originally intended. 298
Technical difficulties and the German reassessment finally led to
significant delays in the project. 299 In April 2004, nine years after the
original in-service date, the first Eurofighters were delivered to a
German fighter wing. 300 Against the backdrop of Air Force Structure
6, the GAF planned to procure a total of 180 Eurofighters
equipped with an advanced self-protection suite, the defensive aids
subsystem, and the Link-16 terminal MIDS. 301 Yet as of mid-2010,
this number was likely to be reduced to 143 aircraft. 302
For aerial combat, the GAF has been introducing new weapons.
Besides the AIM-120B AMRAAM for medium ranges, the Eurofighter
is being equipped with the IRIS-T for short ranges. The
AMRAAM will be supplanted by the Meteor missile from 2014
onwards. 303 Both the Meteor and the IRIS-T are co-development
projects of several European nations. The lead nation in the development
of the latter, Germany plays an important role in the
replacement of the aging AIM-9L Sidewinder missile. 304 In the
medium term, the GAF’s air-to-air armament will thus be entirely
of European origin.