In-Flight and Ground Testing of the Candidates for the Tiger Partial Replacement Completed

BERNE --- The testing of the three candidates for the Tiger Partial Replacement program was completed with the departure of the two Eurofighter two-seat aircraft. In the last three weeks the planned flight and ground testing took place from Emmen military airfield with Eurofighter.>> This is the third evaluation conducted by armasuisse within the framework of the TTE program, and was carried out in cooperation with the air force.>> --Review of the past work:> The preliminary work to prepare for the evaluation of candidates for the Tiger Partial Replacement (TTE) of 30 year-old F-5-Tiger aircraft began more than one year ago. Only aircraft in service with the air force of the manufacturing country were qualified.>> In January 2008 armasuisse requested offers from four aircraft manufacturers: Boeing, Dassault, EADS and Saab. Boeing declined on 30 April 2008 to submit an offer. Possible candidates for the TTE project were thus Saab in Sweden (Gripen), Frances Dassault (Rafale) and the Eurofighter from the European EADS consortium.>> To prepare for the evaluation, in the spring of 2008 the Swiss test team completed one week of training in the country of manufacture of each candidate aircraft.>> With the landing of the Gripen on 28 July 2008 began the three-week evaluations of each of the possible successors to the F-5-Tiger. With the landing of the Rafale on 9 October, and the Eurofighter on 6 November 2008, the flight and ground tests were continued. Two two-seat aircraft of each model were submitted for testing by the respective manufacturer on the military airfield at Emmen. The candidates were flown in each case by a Swiss pilot. A second pilot of the manufacturer flew on the rear seat along and supported his Swiss colleague during the tests.