Warplanes: July 8, 2002

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The Europeans have delayed the service entry for the Eurofighter Typhoon to the end of the year; it had been expected to enter service in June 2002. The program is now a decade behind schedule, but then so are the French Rafale and Eurofighter Gryphon programs. Numerous problems have beset Eurofighter (and the others) including falling post-Cold War budgets, greater than expected difficulties in writing the software, and huge problems integrating virtually every aircraft-delivered weapon in Europe onto a single airframe.--Stephen V Cole