The Typhoon is the next generation fighter aircraft for a group of European nations. In 1983 an agreement was signed by Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK to develop a new multirole fighter aircraft. In 1985 France withdrew to develop the Rafale instead but the remaining four nations continued with the program. The protracted development of the aircraft has seen costs increase and in 1992 the program was halted as Germany threatened to leave unless the price could be reduced. The program was restarted the same year when Germany decided to buy fewer of a less capable variant. The aircraft has delta wing configuration with canard foreplanes. Rolls Royce, MTU, Fiat Avio and ITP have jointly developed the EJ200 engines and the aircraft will be powered by two of these. These advanced and powerful engines are claimed to give the aircraft supercruise capability. Other aircraft features are an IRST system, Defensive Aids Subsystem, helmet sight and voice controls. The aircraft will be fitted with an ECR90 radar and may feature electronic scanning in later versions. Also projected for the later models are conformal fuel tanks and trust vectoring engine nozzles as well as uprated engines. In 1998 the four participating nations signed a production contract for 620 aircraft broken down as 232 for UK, 180 for Germany, 121 for Italy and 87 for Spain. Initial orders are for 148 aircraft- Britain (55), Germany (44), Italy (29) and Spain (20). The first aircraft are expected to in service in 2003. Greece has ordered 60 Typhoons but delayed accquisition till after 2004. The aircraft is also being actively marketed to other potential export customers.