Eurofighter Typhoon Beats F-35 in Dogfight Over Germany!
Imagine you are a US Air Force fighter pilot who flies the F-35A Lightning II – America’s preeminent, fifth-generation, multi-role combat aircraft.
You’ve just been handed a slip of paper with nothing but a location (somewhere over Germany) and an altitude and told to fly there and engage whatever you see.
You won’t know who you’re fighting until the merge.
As you approach the merge, you can feel your anticipation build – like most fighter pilots, you are incredibly competitive and, like any professional, you’ve learned to channel that nervous energy into focus and concentration.
Then you see it.
“Oh boy, there's a Eurofighter.”
Just a disclaimer: even though I wasn’t a pilot in the US Air Force, I am fully instrument rated on Microsoft Flight Simulator 1995.
Now, it’s worth mentioning that simply because the fourth-generation Eurofighter beat the fifth-generation F-35 in this single engagement does not mean this is a definitive statement of the F-35’s quality.
First, pilot skill really matters. Mario Andretti could drive a minivan and beat most regular drivers in racecars at Nürburgring.
Second, the F-35 isn’t really a dogfighter. What I mean is that if an F-35 finds itself in a dogfight, then the pilot is already having a bad day.
But before we get into that, what happened in the dogfight?
In a video released by the US Department of Defense, German Eurofighter pilot 1st Lt. Alexander Grant and US F-35 pilot Capt. Patrick Pearce broke down their head-to-head dogfight at Ramstein Air Base.
The two pilots, one flying the European-made Eurofighter Typhoon and the other piloting the American F-35A, used paper planes to demonstrate their in-air maneuvers, sharing a rare glimpse into NATO’s top-tier air combat capabilities.
This competition was the first of its kind in Europe, pitting NATO’s best fighter pilots against unfamiliar aircraft, all hosted by the US Air Force.
The goal?
To give pilots a chance to test their skills against jets they’ve never flown against while getting a deeper understanding of each other’s equipment and tactics.
Grant, who flies the Eurofighter Typhoon, represents a fighter designed by a European powerhouse trio: Airbus Defense and Space, BAE Systems, and Leonardo.
On the other side, Pearce flew the F-35A Lightning II, Lockheed Martin’s stealthy fifth-generation jet, hailed for its cutting-edge technology.
But here’s the twist:
Neither pilot knew who they’d be squaring off against until the last moment.
Pearce, callsign “Hobbit,” explained that both pilots were handed a slip of paper with coordinates for their aerial rendezvous. As they approached the merge—aviation slang for the point where two planes cross paths—Pearce suddenly realized who his opponent was. “Oh boy, there’s a Eurofighter,” he thought, while on the other side of the cockpit, Grant, whose callsign is “Stitch,” was having a similar epiphany. “I’ve never seen an F-35 so close,” he remarked, noting that in Germany, he only trains against other Eurofighters.
This NATO dogfight gave both pilots a clearer picture of their jet’s strengths.
Grant, quick to praise the Typhoon’s superior thrust, admitted that if this had been a real fight, the F-35’s stealth would have given Pearce a serious edge. “He’d probably kill me beyond visual range before I even knew he was there,” Grant said, acknowledging the fifth-gen fighter’s advanced capabilities.
To bring the fight down to eye level, Grant and Pearce illustrated their tactics with paper airplanes.
Pearce recounted how Grant’s Typhoon managed to slip behind his F-35 during the mock dogfight and line up for a gun kill.
"You can actually see the gun rounds counting down when I employ the gun, even though it’s not loaded. It’s just simulated."
Even though the aircraft weren’t armed, the realism of the simulation hit hard. “You can just feel it in the pit of your stomach,” Pearce said, reflecting on the moment Grant had him in his sights. “It’s like, man, this guy just won the fight.”
For Pearce, the challenge was keeping the F-35’s closure speed in check—a key to avoiding becoming an easy target in a dogfight. But Grant’s skillful flying kept the pressure on, demonstrating the Typhoon’s agility in close-range combat.
"The entire goal if you’re defensive, is to survive, and then create an offensive scenario as much as possible."
However, as Pearce pointed out, the F-35 isn’t designed to duke it out up close. Its real power lies in its stealth and ability to take down enemies from beyond visual range.
The F-35 can also serve as a battle manager, using its onboard data links to coordinate and vector in attacks for other assets in the area.
It’s also worth noting that the F-35 was designed to replace aging fighter inventories including US Air Force F-16s and A-10s, US Navy F/A-18s, US Marine Corps AV-8B Harriers, as well as UK Harrier GR.7s and Sea Harriers.
This means that the F-35 needs to be able to perform all the roles well – which means that it performs none of them exceptionally well. It's a sort of “jack of all trades, master of none” situation.
On the flip side, the Eurofighter Typhoon was designed originally as an air-superiority fighter – winning dogfights is its bread and butter.
Indeed the Eurofighter already has blood on its claws – in 2012, during Red Flag Alaska, the Eurofighter Typhoon achieved several simulated kills against the F-22 Raptor and the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
The question about who wins – the F-35 or Eurofighter Typhoon – has come up in the past: Writing to The Aviationist, an experienced Eurofighter Typhoon industry test pilot said, “No doubt the F-35 is a very capable aircraft: its stealth design, extended range, internal carriage of stores and a variety of integrated sensors are definitely the ingredients for success in modern air-to-ground operations.
However, when the time comes for air dominance, some other ingredients like thrust-to-weight ratio and wing loading tend to regulate the sky. And in that, nothing comes close to a Typhoon, except an F-22 which has very similar values. The F-35 thrust-to-weight ratio is way lower and its energy-maneuverability diagrams match those of the F/A-18, which is an excellent result for a single-engine aircraft loaded with several thousand pounds of fuel and significant armament. But it also means that starting from medium altitude and above, there is no contest with a similarly loaded Eurofighter Typhoon.”
The dogfight over Germany wasn’t just a workout for the jets, though. It was a grueling test of the pilots’ physical endurance.
“You’re underneath a lot of Gs,” Pearce said, describing the intense strain from high-speed maneuvers. Pilots constantly crane their necks to track their adversaries, all while under extreme pressure. It’s a punishing experience, with G-forces multiplying a pilot’s body weight to brutal levels.
To which Grant added, “I would say I turn my head up to seven Gs. After that, I don’t do it anymore. That’s not good for the neck.”
This one-on-one competition wasn’t just about personal bragging rights. It drew in more than 30 aircraft from nine NATO countries—Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK, and the US.
Hosted at Ramstein Air Base, the event no doubt strengthened NATO’s air forces, sharpening the skills and coordination needed to face future threats.
So, for now, the Eurofighter wins the “visual range” title belt. But just know that in a real engagement, the F-35 likely would have engaged long before the Eurofighter got close – or vectored in some F-22 Raptors to help win the fight.
I can tell you from experience that in the US Air Force, we don’t believe in fair fights. I’d rather call in a squadron of F-22 Raptors to deal with that pesky Eurofighter.
But this was a cool exercise nonetheless.
Glory to Ukraine.
Glory to the Heroes.
Слава Україні!
This was supposed to be a joke: “…fully instrument rated on Microsoft Flight Simulator 1995” 😂
When I get discouraged about the future of the west, I think of these heroes. I have zero doubt they are the world’s BEST, and I bet they know it. I suspect they’re itching for battle.