Key Points and Summary – Despite lacking stealth, the Eurofighter Typhoon fields a weapons loadout that keeps it dangerous in real combat.
-A 27mm Mauser BK-27 cannon backs up 13 hardpoints that can carry AMRAAM, Meteor, IRIS-T, ASRAAM, and Sidewinder air-to-air missiles plus Storm Shadow, Brimstone, HARM, Taurus, Marte ER, JDAMs, and Paveway guided bombs.
-RAF and Saudi combat sorties over Libya, Syria, and Yemen have shown how this mix lets the Typhoon police the skies and strike hard on the ground.
German Air Force Eurofighter. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-As a 4.5-generation fighter, it bridges today’s fleets and tomorrow’s stealth jets. Anyone judging it by a sim instead of its real arsenal is making a serious mistake.
The Amazing Arsenal of the Eurofighter Typhoon
As a 4.5-generation jet fighter, the Eurofighter Typhoon—built by a multinational consortium consisting of Britain’s BAE Systems, France’s Airbus, and Italy’s Leonardo S.p.A.—isn’t as sophisticated as the current 5th-generation stealth fighters or the upcoming 6th-generation fighters.
Moreover, in the air combat simulator MACE (Modern Air Combat Environment), the Eurofighter is an absolutely godawful performer, consistently getting its clock cleaned by 3rd-Generation jets, which makes one wonder whether the designers of MACE have a personal bias against that plane.
(At least this was true of the 2021 edition of MACE, which this writer played extensively during a US Air Forces in Europe [USAFE] contract assignment in Germany.)
Lack of stealth and unflattering video game depictions notwithstanding, the Typhoon remains a highly deadly and capable warbird in real-world combat, as has been demonstrated by (1) Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) in places such as Libya and Syria and (2) the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) in their campaign against the Houthis terrorist group in Yemen.
Ergo, any adversary who underestimates this fighter does so at their own peril. A significant reason for the Rafale’s deadliness is, of course, its impressive weapons loadout.
Eurofighter Typhoon Armament Overview
-1 × 27mm (1.063 in) Mauser BK-27 autocannon with 125 rounds of ammo
Eurofighter Typhoon
-13 external hardpoints with a carrying capacity of 9,000 kg (19,800 lb.) worth of external fuel and ordnance, such as:
-AIM-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile; affectionately nicknamed the “Slammer”), MBDA Meteor, AIM-2000 IRIS-T (infrared imaging system tail/thrust vector-controlled), AIM-132 ASRAAM Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile), and AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles
-Storm Shadow/Scalp EG, Brimstone, AGM-88 HARM, and Taurus KEPD 350 air-to-surface missiles
–MBDA Marte ER “Sea Killer” anti-ship missiles
-Paveway II/III/Enhanced Paveway and Paveway IV laser-guided bombs, Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs).
Eurofighter Typhoon Armament Deeper Dive Part 1: The Gun
Unlike the Chengdu J-20 Weilong (“Mighty Dragon;” NATO reporting name “Fagin“) and Shenyang J-35 of China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), the Eurofighter does not omit the gun.
However, cannon kills are few and far between in 21st-century air-to-air combat; they’re not completely non-existent, and accordingly, the Western European fighter pilot community, like their Eastern European and American counterparts, shares the sentiment that a gun is better to have than to need.
Hence, the Typhoon’s gun is the aforementioned 27mm Mauser autocannon.
The Mauser moniker is, of course, instantly recognizable to enthusiasts of vintage small arms such as the C.96 “Broomhandle Mauser” semiautomatic pistol of the late 19th century and the K98 bolt-action infantry rifle of the Wehrmacht in World War II.
Manufactured nowadays by Rheinmetall AG (headquartered in Düsseldorf), the BK-27 is single-barrel 5-chambered revolver cannon that was designed in 1976 and has remained in continuous production since 1977, this gun has an overall length of 2.31 m (7 ft 7 in), a barrel length of 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in), and a mass of 100 kg (220 lb. 7 oz), whilst the shells have a typical projectile weight of 260 g (9.2 oz) and an overall weight for the complete round of 516 g (1.14 lb.).
Eurofighter Typhoon. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
The BK-27 spits out those shells at a muzzle velocity of 1,100 meters per second (3,600 feet per second) and a maximum effective range of 2,500 meters (8,202 feet), at a rate of fire of 1,000-1,700 rounds per minute.
Eurofighter Typhoon Armament Deeper Dive Part Deux: The AIM-132 ASRAAM Missile
Don’t let that “Short-Range” portion of the ASRAAM’s name fool you; it can be pretty deadly within its engagement envelope of 25+ kilometers (15.5 miles).
This was aptly demonstrated by the RAF back in December 2021, when one of their Typhoon drivers shot down a “small hostile drone” over Syria with an ASRAAM, thus marking the first time the British military downed another enemy aircraft since the 1982 Falklands War.
Pictured is a Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4 performing a display during the 2016 RIAT Royal International Air Tattoo.
(How fitting that a Brit would score the Eurofighter’s first air-to-air kill, as the Typhoon was also the name of a World War II-era RAF fighter-bomber, the Hawker Typhoon, which was quite fearsome in its own right.)
Built by MBDA UK as a replacement for the legendary Sidewinder, the ASRRAM weighs 88 kg (194 lb.), measures 2.9 meters (9 feet 6 inches) long, and has a diameter of 166 mm (6.5 inches). It delivers its 10 kg (22 lb.) blast/fragmentation at a velocity of Mach 3+.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr, Defense Expert
Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He is also the author of the newly published book “Five Decades of a Fabulous Firearm: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Beretta 92 Pistol Series.”
