THE FIRST pair of two-seat Eurofighter Typhoons destined for the Kuwait Air Force (KAF) completed their long-awaited maiden flights from Leonardo's Torino-Caselle Nord facility, near Turin in northern Italy, during the afternoon of October 15. The two multi-role fighters took off separately and each completed a 40-minute local test flight before returning to the Leonardo Aircraft Division facility. Both aircraft were painted in a single-tone medium grey operational livery with the Kuwaiti national flag and KAF insignia present on their vertical stabilisers. In April 2016, the Kuwaiti government signed a $8.7bn acquisition contract with Finmeccanica (now Leonardo) to supply 28 Eurofighters - comprising 22 single-seat examples and six two-seat aircraft - to the KAF. The deal also included training, operational support and logistics packages, along with the construction of dedicated infrastructure at AI-Salem Air Base, which will be the type's home base when it enters operational KAF service.
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