Saudi Arabia confirmed on Monday it had agreed with the British government to buy 72 Eurofighter Typhoon warplanes at a cost of £4.43bn, part of a contract that defence sources said could exceed £20bn.

The announcement was made in a statement from the official Saudi Press Agency, which said the price of each aircraft – which works out at £61.5m ($122.5m, €88.4m) – was exactly the sum paid by the UK’s Royal Air Force for each Typhoon.