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As one of the world’s largest and most powerful air powers, the Royal Air Force (RAF) can proudly claim to be an icon of modern military aviation. The United Kingdom has been modernizing its fleet of warbirds with its first stealth aircraft, the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. One might think that this would be the most popular plane in the RAF fleet, but actually, the sleek and powerful Eurofighter Typhoon is the backbone and flagship fighter today.
The Typhoon FGR4 has between 110 and 140 airframes in current service in 2026. The extremely powerful and agile multirole combat fighter was originally developed for the mission of quick reaction alert but has evolved over the past decade since entering service. The stealthy, high-tech F-35 may be the embodiment of the latest and greatest technology in the RAF, but the Typhoon continues to provide the sheer ‘muscle’ required for many of its most important missions.
The RAF’s Thug
Similar to how the United States Air Force is reorganizing its fighter fleet into a high and low mix of 5th- and 4th-generation airframes, the RAF is slotting the F-35 into the ‘quarterback’ role with the Typhoon as the ‘missile truck’ support jet. The new doctrine that emphasizes the Typhoon’s performance and payload capacity as its primary qualities has earned it the nickname, ‘the Thug.’
Although the Skunk Works’ stealthy F-35 can likely defeat a Typhoon in a one-on-one dogfight owing to its superior technology and weapons armament, the Eurofighter is still a far higher-performance aircraft in virtually every metric of comparison. Although the UK does not plan to procure any additional Eurofighters, unlike many of the other partner nations in the program, it doesn’t intend to keep its fleet operating for many years as the backbone of its fighter fleet.
So, the Typhoon will no longer be the tip of the spear as the F-35 will replace it thanks to its ability to penetrate even the best air defenses. Yet, the Eurofighter will continue to be the workhorse of the tactical air arm of the RAF, owing not only to its incredible speed and maneuverability, but also its flexible weapons payload and resilient design. It may lack the stealth of the F-35, but the brains of the jet are similarly advanced and allow it to interoperate with even the most state-of-the-art platforms on the battlefield.
A Pilot’s Fighter: The Typhoon Grin
Among the pilots of the RAF, there is a phenomenon known as the ‘Typhoon Grin.’ This manifests as a physical reaction to the incredible performance and raw power that accompany the experience of flying a Eurofighter to the edge of its performance envelope. Lockheed Martin’s Lightning II may be the technologically superior weapon, but it pales in comparison to the Typhoon in conventional aerial combat. Simply comparing top speed reveals that the Typhoon is significantly faster, with a maximum over Mach 2 as well as supercruiseability.
The Joint Strike Fighter, or F-35, tops out around Mach 1.6 and can’t come close to the agility that the Typhoon is famous for. The Eurofighter is far more than simply an overpowered airframe, like the legacy F-4 Phantom. Instead, it is a highly advanced canard delta wing jet that is inherently aerodynamically unstable and requires advanced computers to keep it in the air. Similar to how the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit stealth bomber can only fly with the assistance of computer aid, the Eurofighter is known to many as a ‘flying supercomputer’ owing to its extremely advanced avionics.
The Typhoon can operate at altitudes of nearly 65,000 feet, roughly 15,000 feet higher than the F-35, providing a ‘high ground’ tactical advantage. It has a superior thrust-to-weight ratio, allowing it to out-climb and out-turn most opponents in close-quarters combat. Its advanced avionics, which are not only intended to give it exceptionally high lift and an energy advantage in dogfighting, also allow it to maintain supersonic speeds without using afterburners, granting the Typhoon a fuel advantage as well.
The RAF’s Aerial Missileer
Empowered by the flight control systems of the Typhoon, pilots are able to ‘yank and bank’ the Eurofighter to perform maneuvers that few other aircraft in the world can match. Much like the US Air Force’s F-15EX Eagle II, that extreme performance also makes its weapon systems even more lethal. With exceptional airspeed and altitude limits, advanced air-to-air missiles like the Meteor are capable of engaging at extreme beyond visual range (BVR).
For the RAF’s critical quick reaction alert missions, speed and climb rate are more important than stealth. The Typhoon can intercept threats over the UK much faster than the F-35. Like the Thug, it carries a heavier and more diverse external payload of up to 13 hardpoints for missiles and bombs. The F-35 is limited by its internal weapons bays; carrying weapons externally to match the Typhoon’s capacity would compromise its primary advantage: stealth.
The superior service ceiling and speed of the Eurofighter compared to the F-35 not only translates to greater lethality in an air-to-air engagement, but also gives it awesome interceptor qualities for deterrence and air policing, and also makes it a very capable strike platform. The addition of the advanced ECRS Mk2 radar compounds its capabilities to transform the Typhoon into a premier strike platform by allowing it to punch through dense enemy defenses.
Why Will The Eurofighter Typhoon Never Be A Stealth Fighter?
Why the Typhoon can’t be “stealthified.”
Typhoon Radar: The Thug Gets Smart
The latest radar upgrade for the Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoon, the European Common Radar System (ECRS) Mk2, is a transformative leap that bridges the technological gap between 4th and 5th-generation aircraft. The upgrade allows the Typhoon to link with future data-driven weapons, ensuring it can communicate and guide munitions in highly contested environments. By providing higher-fidelity tracking at greater distances, the radar maximizes the “no-escape zone” for long-range missiles like the Meteor.
Pilots can now identify and track multiple air and ground targets simultaneously with much higher precision than the previous mechanical Captor-M radar. Its unique gimbal system allows the radar to point off-boresight (to the side), enabling the pilot to maintain a radar track and jam targets while flying away from them to stay out of threat range. The radar even allows the Typhoon to locate and ‘blind’ or suppress enemy air defenses using high-powered jamming.
The ECRS Mk2 contains over 1,000 transmit/receive (T/R) modules, potentially exceeding the capacity of the F-35’s current AN/APG-81 radar and offering higher output power and sensitivity. Unlike traditional radars that only search and track, the ECRS Mk2 can simultaneously perform electronic warfare (EW) and electronic attack (EA). It also features a wideband array, allowing it to passively detect a broader range of enemy emissions across the spectrum without revealing its own location.
F-35 Lightning II Vs Eurofighter Typhoon: How Do Their Radar Systems Compare?
Stealth design meets superpower sensors, a radar showdown between F-35 Lightning II and Eurofighter Typhoon. Who dominates the skies?
Brute Force Strike: Typhoon Power
Unlike the advanced fifth-generation stealth fighters, which rely on silence to hide their emissions and remain invisible from the enemy, the Typhoon flips the script and hits the enemy with brute force. The latest and greatest weapons and sensors aboard the Typhoon dominate the electromagnetic spectrum to disrupt adversary sensors and prevent hostile systems from obtaining a weapons-quality targeting solution.
The radar’s most significant strike upgrade is its ability to perform suppression and destruction of enemy air defenses (SEAD/DEAD). It can emit focused, high-powered electronic attacks to blind enemy surface-to-air missile (SAM) batteries from a distance. As the RAF’s Eurofighter drowns its target in electronic jamming, it can simultaneously rain down high quantities of precision munitions that include the Brimstone and Storm Shadow missiles as well as the Spear Cap 3.
Even if the Typhoon maximizes the combat power of brute force, it retains the option to use a passive sensor sweep to identify targets without revealing its own position. The latest active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar can track and target multiple ground and airborne threats at the same time. The radar’s software-driven architecture is also designed to support future data-driven weapons. It can communicate with smart munitions mid-flight, updating their targets based on real-time data gathered by the radar’s advanced sensors.
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Home Grown Fighter: Made in the UK
In the year 2026, one of the most important factors that has made the Eurofighter Typhoon a more popular aircraft than the newer Lockheed Martin F-35 is the fact that it was not made in America. Many of the partner nations worldwide, who have purchased the Joint Strike Fighter, are now concerned about the stability of America and its potential to control the ‘kill switch’ that would render the F-35 useless. The Eurofighter Typhoon is part of a European Union program that created thousands of jobs across the participating nations.
The United Kingdom has officially declined to purchase any more Typhoons, meaning that the BAE Systems plant in the UK will spool down to prepare for the next generation, but the public still favors the Typhoon, which is a symbol of sovereignty and independence. The sixth-generation ‘Tempest’ Global Combat Air Program is still years from production, but promises to be the true successor to the Eurofighter not only as its natural technological progression but as another source of national pride.
