THE RAF is poised to axe more than 50 Lancashire-made fighter jets early just three years after they came into service.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) wants to retire 53 Tranche 1 Eurofighter Typhoons in 2015, despite them only coming into service in 2007 at a cost of £4.6billion, according to reports.
A senior military official said the first-phase Typhoons, which are manufactured by BAE Systems, would be ‘obsolete’ in five years’ time, the Sunday Times reported.
By then, more advanced Typhoons would have taken their place in the RAF’s fleet.
The move could affect BAE, which has service contracts on Typhoons as well as deals to build them.
The aircraft are manufactured in the UK by thousands of engineers at BAE’s Lancashire plants in Samlesbury and in Warton on the Fylde coast.
However the MoD signalled last year that more advanced tranches of the Typhoon would form the backbone of the RAF’s fleet until at least 2020.
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