Eurofighter Typhoons to be fitted with Brimstone missiles

LONDON, Feb 22 (Reuters) - A deal worth 200 million euros ($228 million) has been signed to equip Eurofighter Typhoon combat jets with the latest Brimstone 2 surface attack missiles, Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on Sunday.

The integration is expected to be delivered into service by Britain's Royal Air Force in late 2018, the MoD said, with each Typhoon able to carry six of the Brimstone missiles, which are designed to hit fast-moving targets and have already been used by Britain's Tornado jets in Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq.

The Typhoon contract, awarded to Eurofighter Jagdflugzeung GmbH by the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency on behalf of Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy, was announced at the International Defence Exhibition in Abu Dhabi.

Typhoons are built by an industrial consortium owned by BAE Systems, Airbus Group (Swiss: AIR.SW - news) and Finmeccanica while Brimstone missiles are produced by MBDA, the European missile group owned by the same three companies.

"The integration of Brimstone 2 represents a step change in Typhoon air-to-surface capability; providing for the first time both a low collateral moving target capability and multi-weapon launchers," said Bernard Gray, the MoD's Chief of Defence Materiel.

($1 = 0.8789 euros) (Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; Editing by Greg Mahlich)