MADRID - According to a report in Spanish daily El Confidencial Digital citing unnamed military sources just 15 percent of the operational Eurofighter Typhoon jet fighters in the Spanish Quick Reaction Alert air wing are readily available. Because of mechanical breakdown, lack of spare parts and backlogs for inspection due to exhausted flight hours some 33 of the 39 Typhoons kept in the high-readiness force based in Moron de la Frontera and Albacete have been grounded. The issue reportedly has become so pronounced that Spain has been rumored to be considering swapping the Eurofighters for aging F/A-18 Hornets when it deploys four jet fighters to Estonia in January 2015 for the beginning of its four-month rotation in the NATO air policing mission for the Baltic States.
Spain's Ministry for Foreign Affairs has denied the rumor and insisted that the country will indeed send its Eurofighters as intended. It also refuted the report of a Typhoon spare part shortage.
Spain ordered 87 Eurofighter Typhoons at a cost of EUR10.8 billion ($13.6 billion) to serve as its featured front-line strike aircraft, but due to financial pressures weighing on Spain's budget the purchase of the final tranche of 13 aircraft remains very much in doubt.
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