British workers have started building the first Eurofighter Typhoon jets Türkiye will actually fly, confirming a defense deal announced last October is now moving from paperwork into an actual factory floor.
BAE Systems said manufacturing is already underway in the United Kingdom and across all Eurofighter partner nations on the 20 Typhoon combat jets Türkiye ordered, with the first aircraft scheduled for delivery in 2030, Ulusavunma reported, citing the company’s first-half 2026 financial results.
The order will reach the Turkish Air Force in three separate batches, with six aircraft arriving in 2030, eight more in 2031, and the final six completing the order in 2032, giving Turkish pilots and maintenance crews a staggered ramp-up period rather than absorbing all 20 jets at once.
Türkiye and the United Kingdom signed the original £5.4 billion ($7.2 billion) agreement in October 2025 during a ceremony in Ankara, a deal that made Türkiye the tenth nation to operate the twin-engine, delta-wing Typhoon, joining founding partner nations Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK alongside export customers Austria, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, according to prior reporting from The Defence Blog. BAE Systems Chief Executive Charles Woodburn described the agreement at the time as marking the start of a new chapter in Britain’s relationship with an important NATO ally, framing the sale as reinforcing outstanding operational support the Typhoon continues delivering across Europe and the Middle East.
The Eurofighter Typhoon itself is a supersonic multirole combat aircraft that has been in service since 2003, built by a European industrial consortium made up of BAE Systems, Airbus, and Italy’s Leonardo, making it Europe’s largest collaborative defense program and a platform that has now been sold to nine nations before Türkiye’s order pushed that total to ten. The aircraft carries out air-to-air combat, ground attack, and reconnaissance missions, and the version Türkiye is buying, known as Tranche 4 configuration, represents the most current production standard in the Typhoon’s development, incorporating years of incremental upgrades to sensors, avionics, and structural design compared to earlier Tranche variants still flying with some operator nations.
Final assembly of Türkiye’s jets will take place at BAE Systems’ Warton facility in Lancashire, the same site where the company builds and assembles Typhoon aircraft for other customers, and the UK government has stated Britain manufactures more than a third of every Typhoon produced under the broader consortium arrangement. That concentration of production work in Britain carries real economic weight domestically, since the Typhoon program currently supports more than 20,000 jobs across the UK, and the Turkish order arrived at a moment when the program genuinely needed new business to sustain that employment. The trade union Unite had publicly warned in mid-2025 that assembly lines at Warton had ground to a halt, with staff being shifted to other BAE facilities amid a gap in new orders, and union general secretary Sharon Graham had cautioned that failing to secure additional aircraft orders could destroy a generation of aerospace workers, calling the risk an act of national self-harm.
According to a person familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters, the £5.4 billion deal includes a substantial weapons package featuring MBDA’s Meteor beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile, a weapon that uses a rocket-ramjet propulsion combination allowing it to sustain powered flight over distances of roughly 124 miles (200 km) rather than relying purely on an initial rocket boost like many rival air-to-air missiles, along with Brimstone precision ground-attack missiles. Weapons integration work for that package involves coordination between BAE Systems and MBDA, adding a technically complex layer to the broader production and delivery timeline beyond simply building the airframes themselves.
Beyond the aircraft and weapons, BAE Systems separately secured a UK government contract in March 2026 covering training, support equipment, and services for Türkiye’s Typhoon fleet, an agreement that includes high-fidelity simulators, electronic warfare systems, spare parts, and technical assistance for an initial three-year period following the aircraft’s entry into service. Simon Barnes, Group Managing Director of BAE Systems’ Air sector, described that support arrangement as reinforcing the broader defense relationship between the two nations.
“We’re proud to support the UK’s partnership with Türkiye by delivering a trusted defence capability that deepens collaboration and reinforces shared security commitments. Türkiye’s acquisition of Typhoon strengthens this partnership and enhances the country’s advanced combat air capabilities,” Barnes said.
Under that training component, the Royal Air Force will train 10 Turkish instructor pilots along with nearly 100 Turkish maintenance personnel, part of a deliberate effort to help Türkiye build its own sovereign training and support capability rather than remaining permanently dependent on British instructors for every aspect of Typhoon operations. Türkiye also signed a separate agreement with the UK on March 25, 2026, specifically covering technical and logistics support for the Typhoon fleet, with Turkish flight and maintenance personnel expected to continue traveling to the United Kingdom for training over the coming years as the program matures.
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