Austria is to retain its Eurofighter combat aircraft in service at the same time as retiring its Saab 105 jet trainers, the country's defence minister has announced. Defence Minister Klaudia Tanner said on 6 July that the Austrian Air Force's 15 Tranche 1 Eurofighters will remain for at least the duration of the current contract with Airbus, while its 12 remaining Saab 105OEs will be withdrawn from 2021 as pilot training moves overseas. Austria has for some years been looking to retire the Eurofighters it bought in 2003 for EUR1.75 billion (USD2.7 billion at the time) and replace them with a cheaper-to-operate aircraft. Although already truncated from a planned 24 aircraft (with options up to 30) for cost reasons, the deal was the largest procurement in the country's history. Added to this initial outlay were persistent complaints from senior air force officials that operating costs were too high to sustain operations (USD73,000 per hour was one figure given, although this was disputed by Eurofighter).
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