Purchases of Western fighter jets by the Qatar Emiri Air Force (QEAF) have transformed the Gulf nation into one of the most advanced air powers in the region.

Since 2015, Qatar has made deals to purchase French Rafales, the Eurofighter Typhoon and US-made F-15s.

Once deliveries are complete, the Gulf country is expected to have upgraded its air force of 12 aged French Mirage fighters to 96 4.5-generation fighters.

The Eurofighter Typhoon

Qatar received its first batch of Eurofighter Typhoons in August 2022 under a £6 billion ($7.5 billion) deal inked in 2017.

Under the agreement, the government of Qatar signed for 24 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft in addition to a package of training and co-operation between the British and Qatari Emiri air forces.

The plans included the establishment of No. 12 Squadron, a UK-based joint UK-Qatar Typhoon squadron at RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire, England, in July 2018.

The squadron has since integrated Qatari personnel, including pilots and ground crew, and provided the QEAF with years of operational experience flying the Typhoon before it received its own aircraft.

The first QEAF personnel arrived in early 2020 to join the squadron. Since then, the squadron has made a number of deployments to Qatar, including in 2022 for the World Cup.

The Eurofighter Typhoon is a twin-engine, canard-delta wing, multirole fighter, manufactured by a consortium of Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo.

Its website touts the Typhoon as "the world's most advanced swing-role combat aircraft", a term referring to the ability to quickly shift between air-to-air and air-to-surface roles at short notice.

As of December 2022, Qatar had received four out of the 24 Eurofighters it has ordered, according to FlightGlobal's 2023 World Air Forces report.

The Rafale

In May 2015, Qatar inked a €6.3 billion ($6.9 billion) contract for 24 Rafales from France.

The contract also included the provision of long-range cruise missiles and Meteor missiles as well as the training of 36 Qatari pilots and 100 technicians by the French military.

Qatar in December 2017 exercised an option for 12 more Rafales for €1.1 billion, and added an additional option for 36 further fighters.

The Rafale is a French twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter aircraft.

Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of the Rafale, refers to it as an "omnirole" aircraft.

It is built for a wide range of combat missions, including air superiority, strikes deep inside adversary territory, reconnaissance, and anti-ship action, and has proven able to fight alongside allies collaborating and communicating in real time, according to Dassault.

The Rafale has six foreign users, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, India, Egypt, Greece and Croatia.

Qatar took delivery of its first Rafale in February 2019. Since then, it has received some 33 of the fighters.

The F-15QA

Qatar has also ordered Boeing's F-15QA Advanced Eagles.

Qatar awarded Boeing a $6.2 billion contract in 2017 to deliver 36 F-15QA aircraft, a version of the F-15SA developed for Saudi Arabia that features a fly-by-wire flight control system that enables the use of outboard-wing weapons stations.

The F-15QA/SA also feature a wide-area display cockpit and a Raytheon APG-82(V)1 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar.

In 2016, the Defence Security Co-operation Agency (DSCA) notified Congress that Qatar was approved to buy up to 72 F-15QAs, suggesting a potential second batch.

As part of the deal, Boeing has provided initial pilot training near St. Louis in the United States, and plans to establish a training centre for the aircraft at al-Udeid air base in Qatar that is set to be operational in 2024.

The first batch was delivered in November 2021.

"The Qatari Air Force configuration for the F-15 is the most advanced produced by Boeing to date and serves as the airframe and avionics baseline for the US Air Force's F-15EX," Aviation Week noted at the time.

According to Flight Global, 22 F-15QAs have been delivered to Qatar.