BBC Documentaries

Eurofighter - Weapon of Mass Construction (2003x39)

Date de diffusion: Juil 06, 2003

There have been many twists and turns in the journey of the controversial Eurofighter Typhoon. Conceived at the height of the Cold War by the UK, Germany, Italy and France to combat the superiority of the Soviet Union's air force, the aircraft's in-service delivery date of 30 June is ten years late and -- at a cost of more than £50 billion -- it's become the most expensive European defence project ever. The work of an unprecedented number of nations, the aircraft's troubled genesis has seen out the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Bosnia, 9/11 and two Gulf wars. France dropped out in 1985 in favour of building a rival plane, the Rafale, and each change of strategy and political environment has left a legacy of compromise, escalating costs, manufacturing blunders, loose management and delays. The documentary exposes several crises where the project nearly came to a halt because of national self-interest and stubbornness and covers the calamitous events of 2002, the year when the first aircraft was due to be handed over to the Air Forces for training purposes. First the delivery date was postponed yet again and then the Spanish prototype, the DA-6, crash-landed near Madrid at a cost of £30 million prompting the governments of the four nations to delay the delivery date to June 2003. This 50 minutes documentary, produced by The Open University for BBC FOUR, talks to many key players involved in the drama of building a cutting-edge combat aircraft. Test pilots think the Eurofighter is "a deadly machine" and military experts point out that its ability to switch role by voice command, enabling it to fight air-to-air as well as air-to-surface battles, in all weathers, makes it the most sophisticated fighter-bomber of its age. But some, like defence analyst Susan Willett, think the plane is outdated and an embarrassment for the RAF. There are interviews with the test pilots, with Malcolm Rifkind (UK Defence Secretary 1992-95) and with Andr