Eurofighter Typhoon programme costs to escalate by over $16 billion: Report

Berlin: The Eurofighter Typhoon combat jets, being developed by a consortium of four European countries, are going to cost over 10 billion euros more than expected, according to a report in the German weekly magazine, Focus.

According to the report, of the countries involved in developing the Typhoon, Britain will now have to spend an additional 5.8 billion euros ($8.2 billion), Italy 2.16 billion, Germany 1.97 billion and Spain 820 million.

The magazine has cited a letter from the German branch of the consortium, Eurofighter-GmbH, addressed to Germany's defence ministry.

The magazine also said that "other clients" for the Eurofighter would have to pay more than consortium partners.

The cost has increased due to certain "systems" and other modernization work, Focus said.

Partners in the consortium divided work on the plane in 1998 according to the number of aircraft each country planned to buy, with a total of 620 orders booked in three stages through to 2017.

The Eurofighter is a multi-purpose combat jet, which has also been ordered by Saudi Arabia and Austria. The Austrians, however, reduced the size of their original order.

A European consortium of companies consisting of the Franco-German EADS, the British BAE Systems and the Italian company Alenia/Finmeccanica has developed the Typhoon.