The Eurofighter EF2000 Typhoon is a twin-engine swing role fighter with delta-wing and canards, designed and built by a four nations consortium consisting of British Aerospace (UK), Daimler-Benz Aerospace DASA (Germany), Alenia Aerospazio (Italy), and CASA (Spain).

Initial design of the Eurofighter began in 1986 by the three nations involved in the Tornado project (UK, Germany and Italy) who required an air superiority fighter to counter the next generation of Russian built fighters as the Mikoyan MiG-29 "Fulcrum" and the Sukhoi Su-27 "Flanker" then entering service. One key element of the design was maneuverability during close air combat.

The Eurofighter program began with a one-of prototype the EAP (Experimental Aircraft Program) a technology demonstrator built by British Aerospace with help from Germany to demonstrate some of the systems of the Eurofighter, including the carefree handling fly by wire system, multifunction cockpit-displays and direct voice input. The first flight of the EAP was on August 8, 1986 from BAe Warton with David Eagles in the cockpit. The EAP flew only 165 hours in five years.

The German Eurofighter 98+29 first flight was from DASA's home base Manching on March 27, 1994 with chief test pilot Peter Weger. It was a 45 minutes flight. The DA1 and DA2 flew the first part of the test flights with the Tornado engine, the Turbo-union RB199. The third prototype (Italian prototype) flew from the beginning with the Euro jet EJ200 turbofans.

The Typhoon incorporates several new state of the art aerial systems including the ECR-90 multirole radar built by companies from all four partner nations and IRIS-T an infra-red search and track weapon aiming system coupled with helmet mounted symbology. Other systems include a defensive Aids sub-system (DASS), wide-angle head up display and VTAS, a Voice Throttle and Stick control system that includes direct voice input of some commands and HOTAS (Hand on Throttle and Stick) to ease the pilots workload.