after several wars the european countries were finally able to unite as a unit
the next logical step is to collaborate on military research and development
a number of military projects have since left the eu here are six of europe's best fighter jets
various brands of powerful fighter jets produced by influential countries fought on the battlefield
since the early years american fighters often take the lead in aerial combat however despite being
outnumbered history cannot deny the competence capability and performance of european fighter
jets the pursuit of air superiority that leads to victory depends on various factors such as pilot
mastery the strategy in which their fighters are deployed and the number and performance of
the fighter jets although it all started with pilot commanded technology years of research
and development were carried out for this fighter jet and as a result billions of euros were spent
in recent years spain collaborated with france and germany on a project
to build a next-generation fighter and enhance european defense the new project will equip and
take over two of europe's legendary mid-range fighters the typhoon and rafale around 20 40.
daso rafale is a multi-role fighter aircraft developed by the french company dasso aviation
development began in the late 1970s followed by the prototypes made in flight on july 4
1986 it was designed to demonstrate air superiority air interdiction air reconnaissance
close air support anti-surface warfare and nuclear warfare the rafale has a fully optimized
fuselage with a close-paired delta wing and canard which is key to its combat performance
it also offers a variety of intelligent and discrete sensors pure power of multi-sense or
data fusion a variety of advanced weapons built-in support and mission readiness
and low operating costs this fighter jet can fly at an altitude of 49009
feet with a maximum speed of 1032 knots the rafale missile has a combat range of 1000 nautical miles
on penetration missions with three tanks two scout pg or general-purpose long-range cruise missiles
and two mica or interception combat and self-defense missiles
the saab jazz 39 gripen is a swedish light multi-role fighter aircraft manufactured by
the saab group development studies for an aircraft capable of combat attack and aerial reconnaissance
began in 1979. the first aircraft made its maiden flight on december 9 1988 and entered service with
the swedish air force in 1996. later versions were upgraded to north atlantic treaty organization
interoperability standards n80 and features a fully digital cockpit network connectivity with
multi-frequency data links the state-of-the-art saw babytronics ep 17 electronic display array
pso5 slash a pulse doppler radar and the tsc 2000 friend ortho identification system
iff with a mouser bk27 revolver cannon rockets missiles and bombs the jazz 39 grecon can fly at
a maximum speed of 1330 knots it has a combat range and ferry range of 810 nautical miles
and 2200 nautical miles respectively this multi-role fighter can fly up to 52 000 ft
the eurofighter typhoon is a multi-role fighter aircraft that began development in 1983 and is
the largest multinational military joint effort managed by its main customer the nato euro fighter
and tornado management agency nema the prototype took its maiden flight on march 27 1994 and
adopted the name typhoon in september 1998. the world's most advanced new generation swing roll
fighter jet has both air-to-air and air-to-surface capabilities that can be used simultaneously
it is a very agile fighter due to its relaxed stability which is intentionally designed to allow
it to perform at both supersonic and low speeds it features a quadruple fly-by-wire control system
defensive aids sub-system and weaponry such as the mouser bk-27 revolver cannon
air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles and bombs this aircraft has a maximum speed of 1347 knots
it can fly up to 65 000 ft and has an air defense combat range of 750 nautical miles with 10 minutes
of ground roam attack or 100 nautical miles of air defense with three hours of combat air patrol
the dodso mirage 2000 is a fourth-generation multi-role fighter aircraft developed in the
late 1970s the french fighter jet was produced by dasso aviation as a replacement for the mirage 3.
the prototype made its maiden flight on march 10 1978 and has been in service with the french air
force since 1984. the mirage 2000 has a delta wing configuration for greater internal fuel loads and
is the first oso aircraft to use fly-by-wire control technology it also features hotas
hands-on throttle and stick controls a head-up display and a crt display screen in the cockpit
the fighter jet is designed to carry various missiles such as mbda mica ir rf matara or 550
magic 2 and super 5 30d air-to-air missiles and m.39 exoset air-to-surface missiles
this fighter jet has a maximum speed of 1261 knots at altitude and 600 knots at sea level
it can fly up to 55 970 feet and has a travel range of 840 nautical miles
the panavia tornado is a multi-role swing wing and attack aircraft produced by three powerful nations
italy england and west germany it made its first flight on august 14 1974 and entered service from
1979 to 1980 the tornado had three main versions the tornado ids interdictor strike fighter bomber
the suppression of enemy air defenses scad tornado ecr electronic reconnaissance
and the tornado adverb air defense variant interceptor this multi-role fighter is
designed with a variable sweep wing to operate best as a low-level supersonic attack aircraft
it has a tandem seat cockpit tornado advanced radar display information system tardis and
digital autopilot and flight director system afds the missile is armed with a mouser bk-27
revolver cannon aim9 sidewinder or aim 132 as ram air-to-air missiles agm-65 maverick brimstone
or strom shadow missile and anti-radiational alarm missiles the tornado has a maximum speed
of 1 300 knots at an altitude of 30 000 feet it has a travel range of 750 nautical miles
and a ferry range of 2100 naughty call miles this aircraft can fly up to an altitude of 50 000 feet