The UK Royal Air Force (RAF) intends to scrap 16 Eurofighter Typhoons as part of a project to save GBP 800 million (USD1.13 billion) on the running cost of the service’s combat aircraft fleet.
The plans to dismantle the aircraft and harvest spare parts for use on the remainder of the Typhoon fleet were revealed to IHS Jane’s on 29th January by RAF Air Command at High Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, in response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request.
The project, known as Reduce to Produce (RTP), aims to generate GBP50 million worth of parts from each airframe “back into the supply chain”, according to the FOI data.
To collect more spare parts for the Tornado GR4, BAE Systems implemented a Reduce to Produce (RTP) programme after the RAF Tornado F3 was withdrawn from service in 2010. The programme was based on RAF Leeming and it salvages parts from the F3 aircraft fleet. RTP’s objective was to reduce the cost for performing the support on the Tornado Squadrons while at the same time, maintain a full range of spares supply chain for the Tornado aircraft.
Since the programme’s inception, the teams were able to salvage around 800 to 1200 parts per airframe, resulting in a huge success, which then directly translates to huge savings in cost for the Royal Air Force.
