DThe German Air Force has a presence in Asia and Oceania. Right at the beginning of the major Indo-Pacific relocation of several combat aircraft to the region, however, there was a failure. Instead of the six Eurofighters planned, only five German fighter jets landed at Paya Lebar Airbase in Singapore on Tuesday. During the stopover in Abu Dhabi, one of the planes had hydraulic problems and was therefore unable to take off. The Air Force is now hoping the plane will arrive in time for the start of a military exercise in Australia on Monday. “If you imagine how complex such a combat aircraft is, it can happen that we have a technical defect. We remain completely relaxed,” said the Air Force Inspector, Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz, after the arrival of the other aircraft in Singapore.

The inspector had previously said it was one of the “largest and most challenging deployments the Air Force has ever seen.” This was shown by the failure of an aircraft during the transfer called “Rapid Pacific 2022” right from the start. After all, the five remaining Eurofighters of Air Squadron 74 made the journey from Neuburg an der Donau to Singapore in less than 24 hours, as planned. They are accompanied by four A400M transporters and three A330 tankers. They carry 100 tons of material. The 12,800-kilometer route first led to Abu Dhabi, across the Gulf of Oman to India, where a thunderstorm was raging, across the Bay of Bengal to the Southeast Asian city-state. Over the course of the planned voyage, the Eurofighters will be refueled around 200 times in the air.