it was single carried on RAF aircraft, first test firing to be done later this year
but also remember that SPEAR-3 is primarily an F-35 weapon. Eurofighter integration(if it happens) will come at a much later date.
Germany so far has expressed no interest in acquiring it and its not even confirmed for the ECR variant.
EF EK step 1 is mostly just retrofitting the arexis suite and adding AGM-88E AARGM (block 1 or 2 idk).
further upgrades (possibly step 2) can include new weapons but then the focus would probably be on SPEAR-EW
SPEAR-EW wouldnt be the only competitor as Rafael, Diehl and Hensoldt have announced a partnership to design/produce a SPICE-250ER variant but as a jammer, like SPEAR-EW. (Diehl + Rafael would be producing the missile, Rafael + Hensoldt would be producing the EW component)
so the C-8s are definitely for the Eurofighter and an additional 122mln worth have been contracted (on top of the previous 178mln)
laughable stock numbers tbh
at most there will be maybe 250 c-8s not including the ones from the f-35 order. for 150 or so eurofighters (this number is growing btw). + max 300 meteors (probably less bcs test launches here and there maybe)
the potential order of 1250 iris-ts or so will probably also only result in an order of what feels like 7… pathetic
thats what the US approved as a potential export. approved just means thats the maximum that could in theory be contracted. but it wasnt… total value of that was north of 1bln
4-6 IR missiles only with twin rails or if gaijin wants to consider putting MFRLs on the other wing pylons but then it’d be 4-8, not 4-6
same for the MRAAMs, either 4-6 or 4-10
official brimstone count is more like 12 but 18 should be possible
Taurus was only carried for tests and not released but ig its “technically” possible to use
Radar used should be the Mk1 by now for testing
one thing that could be added is GBU-54; integration is unfortunately still ongoing but i’d expect them to be tested on IPA7
MFRL is the rail used for any and all missiles mounted on ALDERU and AHDERU
Inner and middle wing pylons are AHDERU (rated for 2000lbs and 1000lbs with 30 and 14inch lugs)
outer pylons are ALDERU (rated for 1000lbs with 14 inch lugs only), itspl obv IR only
so if you see an amraam, meteor, iris-t, asraam or 9L on a wing pylon and not the ITSPL or fuselage then tahts on an MFRL
it’s like the eurofighter’s LAU-127 in a way
brochure from the manufacturer;
this explicitly states “IRIS-T in Analogue mode” however i believe this to be outdated information from likely pre P2E information
Why? well ASRAAM, AMRAAM and Meteor seem to work just fine with digital links so this is definitely not a hardware but rather a software thing and we all know how slow Germany is with upgrades…
