The new Spanish Eurofighters will not have the Israeli Litening V designators

The Spanish Armed Forces continue to lose capabilities due to the Pedro Sánchez government's campaign against the State of Israel.

Spain loses two important weapons systems due to Pedro Sánchez's veto on Israel
Red ethics: buying weapons from Israel, bad; buying them from Hamas allies, good

That campaign, a smokescreen to cover up the socialist corruption scandals, is including a veto on the purchase of weapons systems manufactured in Israel, a country with advanced defense technology. A few days ago, the Spanish government already cancelled the purchase of two important weapons systems acquired for the Army, the Spike LR2 anti-tank missiles and the SILAM rocket launcher, for containing Israeli technology.

Now it's the Air Force's turn. This Friday, the State Contracting Platform announced the cancellation of the purchase of target designators manufactured by the Israeli company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, a contract that was signed on March 1, 2024, so it is not ruled out that Spain will have to pay compensation to that company for this cancellation without receiving the purchased product, as is the case with the Spike LR2 and the SILAM.

This contract was worth 207 million euros. The acquisition was announced in Issue 929 of the Revista de Aeronáutica y Astronáutica (see PDF) published by the Spanish Ministry of Defense. Regarding those target designators, that official publication stated the following:

"The acquisition of this POD will increase the combat effectiveness of these weapons systems, improving the ability to detect, identify, and passively track traces, day or night, both in air policing missions and in operations. The use of laser-guided and even GPS-guided precision munitions requires that targets be illuminated by these PODs.

This new acquisition will be intended to equip the 45 Eurofighter combat aircraft of the Falcon I and Falcon II programs (20 and 25 respectively, of the so-called P3E or Phase 3 Enhancement).

The Litening V's improvements over previous versions include a larger aperture color CCD sensor that allows it to detect and identify targets at greater distances, as well as an updated infrared sensor."

In total, the contract called for the acquisition of 46 Litening V nacelles. Eurofighters have been using Litening designators since Block 10, which enabled the European fighter aircraft to use Litening III designators. This designator is the most common model on Eurofighters and other NATO fighters.

Currently, the Litening V is used by 28 countries with a total of 2,000 units in service. Spain has already been using previous versions in its combat aircraft, both the EF-18M and Eurofighters of the Spanish Air Force (which use the Litening III) and the Harrier II of the Spanish Navy (which use the Litening II, updated to the AT version, manufactured under license by Northrop Grumman).

In addition to the cancellation of the Litening V purchase, it remains to be seen how the Sánchez government's veto of Israel affects the Litening III and AT already in service in Spain. After all, these designators require maintenance and replacement parts. If Sánchez insists on continuing with his veto of Israel, the Spanish Litenings could start to become very expensive paperweights, forcing the purchase of new pods for our combat aircraft.

Now, Spain will have to look for alternatives after giving up, for political reasons, one of the best target designators on the market. Spain does not manufacture any. There are American models such as the LANTIRN and the Sniper XR, manufactured by Lockheed Martin. The bad news for Sánchez's government is that there are no Turkish designators on the market, given the Spanish socialist cabinet's inclination towards the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of Hamas's main international supporters.

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Main photo: U.S. Air Force.