With the approach of the first trial of the accused in the Eurofighter case, which was set by the Court of Ministers to July 5, Spain’s announcement a few days ago that it had signed a deal to buy 20 Eurofighter planes worth $2.1 billion reopened the door again to the question that has been unanswered for 6 years. Why is Eurofighter Kuwait more expensive?
The history of the Kuwait deal dates back to 2016, when it signed a contract to buy 28 Eurofighter planes at a value of $9 billion, which specialist observers have considered over the past years to be a very high and exaggerated number compared to the deals concluded by other countries to buy the same type of fighter.
The sources considered that “the official announcement of the signing of the Spanish deal to buy a (Eurofighter) plane and its value increases suspicions about the Kuwait deal,” noting that “the Airbus manufacturer deals according to an inflation margin or an increase in prices that amounts to about 2.5 percent annually, which means Spain’s deal to buy 20 planes worth $2.1 billion is equivalent to about $1.8 billion in 2016, when Kuwait signed its deal.
The sources indicated that “according to previous information, the price of the Eurofighter reached 110 million dollars in deals with several countries such as Britain – Austria – Germany – Belgium – Saudi Arabia – Oman, and it amounts to about 108 million dollars in the Spanish deal, while its cost reached in the deal concluded with Kuwait amounted to about $321 million, in addition to the enjoyment of the Spanish Eurofighter fighters with advanced and modern specifications, and the deal included various aspects related to it.
Under the headline “Spain buys updated Eurofighters at 34% of the price paid by Kuwait,” the international military and armament website Military Watch wrote: “At the level of $108 million per plane, the price of the Eurofighter deal that Spain requested to buy was remarkable and very high when compared to the prices of fighters with the same specifications and technologies that had been sold to Kuwait.”
He added, “The previous contract cost the Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense $321 million for each fighter, which is three times its price in the Spanish order, despite the fact that Kuwait bought a larger number (28 fighters), and these were the most expensive fighters exported, according to estimates.”
The cost of these Eurofighters has raised a great deal of controversy in the Kuwaiti parliament, especially when it was compared with the prices of the heavier and more efficient (18E/F Super Hornet), which had been purchased simultaneously from the United States and were considered much cheaper.
The sources expected that the information published by the global website would reopen the Eurofighter file in Kuwait at various governmental, parliamentary and supervisory levels.
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