Hörsching Airport

No permanent deployment of Eurofighters in Linz

The Austrian Armed Forces' Eurofighter Typhoon will only be stationed in Linz-Hörsching on a daily basis. However, it will not have its own hangar.(Bild: Christof Birbaumer)

The stationing of the Eurofighters in Linz will not be permanent after all: Three fighter jets were ready to take off on alert missions from Upper Austria at the weekend: none took off, the barracks will not be converted.

Aircraft spotters and military fans pressed their noses against the wire mesh fence to catch a glimpse of the jet fighters: For three days, the army relocated a Eurofighter alert rotunda from Zeltweg to Linz - we reported. The reason: Because there are too few personnel in Styria to operate the jets, they resorted to the crews at the Vogler airbase in Hörsching, where a standby unit is on duty at weekends.

Linz-Hörsching will not become a permanent base
Initially, there was talk that a general base for part of the Eurofighter fleet could be installed at the airport. This was made dependent on politics. On Monday, army spokesman Colonel Michael Bauer confirmed to the newspaper "Krone" that Upper Austria will not be a permanent location in the future.

The cost of creating this infrastructure would be too high. It does not pay off.

Bundesheer-Sprecher Oberst Michael Bauer

"There is no dockyard at Vogler airbase. It would therefore not be possible to launch training or instruction flights from here. The effort involved in creating this infrastructure would be too great. It doesn't pay off," says the Bundesherr officer.

On average, the Eurofighters take off around 20 times a year for priority alpha missions. This is when aircraft violate Austrian airspace and do not respond to warnings. The jets will continue to take off from Linz in future, but only occasionally and at weekends. This weekend, however, there was no reason for the jets to take off on alert.