Eurofighter Typhoon (RAF)

Contains threads on Royal Air Force equipment of the past, present and future.
marktigger
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Eurofighter Typhoon (RAF)

Post by marktigger »

lets start one on typhoon

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SKB
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Re: Eurofighter Typhoon (RAF)

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Introduction
The Eurofighter Typhoon is a twin-engine, canard-delta wing, multirole fighter. The Typhoon was designed and is manufactured by a consortium of three companies; Alenia Aermacchi, Airbus Group and BAE Systems, who conduct the majority of affairs dealing with the project through a joint holding company, Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH, which was formed in 1986. The project is managed by the NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency, which also acts as the prime customer.

Development of the aircraft effectively began in 1983 with the Future European Fighter Aircraft programme, a multinational collaborative effort between the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Because of disagreements over design authority and operational requirements, France left the consortium to develop the Dassault Rafale independently instead. A technology demonstration aircraft, the British Aerospace EAP, first took flight on 6 August 1986; the first prototype of the finalised Eurofighter made its first flight on 27 March 1994. The name of the aircraft, Typhoon, was formally adopted in September 1998; the first production contracts were signed that same year.

Political issues in the partner nations significantly protracted the Typhoon's development; the sudden end of the Cold War reduced European demand for fighter aircraft, and there was debate over the cost and work share of the Eurofighter. The Typhoon was introduced into operational service in 2003. Currently, the type has entered service with the Austrian Air Force, the Italian Air Force, the German Air Force, the Royal Air Force, the Spanish Air Force, and the Royal Saudi Air Force. The Royal Air Force of Oman has also been confirmed as an export customer, bringing the procurement total to 571 aircraft as of 2013.

The Eurofighter Typhoon is a highly agile aircraft, designed to be an effective dogfighter when in combat with other aircraft; later production aircraft have been increasingly better equipped to undertake air-to-surface strike missions and to be compatible with a likewise increasing number of different armaments and equipment. The Typhoon saw its combat debut during the 2011 military intervention in Libya with the Royal Air Force and the Italian Air Force, performing aerial reconnaissance and ground strike missions. The type has also taken primary responsibility for air-defence duties for the majority of customer nations.


Royal Air Force
On 9 August 2007, the UK's Ministry of Defence reported that No. 11 Squadron RAF of the RAF, which stood up as a Typhoon squadron on 29 March 2007, had taken delivery of its first two multi-role Typhoons. Two of 11 Squadron's Typhoons were sent to intercept a Russian Tupolev Tu-95 approaching British airspace on 17 August 2007. The RAF Typhoons were declared combat ready in the air-to-ground role by 1 July 2008. The RAF Typhoons were projected to be ready to deploy for operations by mid-2008.

Around 25 April 2008 a Typhoon from 17 Squadron at RAF Coningsby, operating at the US Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake test centre in California, USA, suffered extensive damage during landing when its landing gear did not deploy. Although no immediate cause was determined, it was speculated that pilot error may have been to blame. In July 2014, the Ministry of Defence revealed, under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, that the remains of aircraft ZJ943 were held in storage at RAF Coningsby, although some parts had been loaned to the Bloodhound SSC project.

The National Audit Office observed in 2011 that the distribution of the Eurofighter's parts supply and repairs over several countries has led to parts shortages, long time scales for repairs and the cannibalisation of some aircraft to keep others flying.

In September 2009, four RAF Typhoons were deployed to RAF Mount Pleasant replacing the Tornado F3s defending the Falkland Islands. The government of Argentina "is understood to have made a formal protest".

On 18 March 2011, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the UK would deploy Typhoons, alongside Panavia Tornados, to enforce a no-fly zone in Libya. On 20 March 10 Typhoons from RAF Coningsby and RAF Leuchars arrived at the Gioia del Colle airbase in southern Italy. On 21 March RAF Typhoons flew their first ever combat mission while patrolling the no-fly Zone. On 29 March, it was revealed that the RAF were short of pilots to fly the required number of sorties over Libya and were having to divert personnel from Typhoon training to meet the shortfall.

On 12 April 2011, a mixed pair of RAF Typhoon and Tornado GR4 dropped precision-guided bombs on ground vehicles operated by Gaddafi forces that were parked in an abandoned tank park. Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton, revealed during the Royal Aeronautical Society's Aerospace 2011 conference in London, that each aircraft dropped one GBU-16 Paveway II 454 kg (1,000 lb) laser-guided bomb which struck "very successfully and very accurately". The event represented "a significant milestone in the delivery of multi-role Typhoon." Target designation was provided by the Tornados with their Litening III targeting pods due to the lack of Typhoon pilots trained in air-to-ground missions.

The UK's then Defence Secretary Liam Fox admitted on 14 April 2011 that Britain's Eurofighter Typhoon jets were grounded in 2010 due to shortage of spare parts. The RAF has been "cannibalising" aircraft for spare parts in a bid to keep the maximum number of Typhoons operational on any given day. The Ministry of Defence had warned the problems were likely to continue until 2015.

In July 2012, UK Defence Secretary Philip Hammond suggested that a follow-on buy of F-35A aircraft would be determined by the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) in 2015, with the aim of replacing the UK's Typhoons around 2030. The UK is to decide what mix of manned and unmanned aircraft to replace its Eurofighters with sometime between 2015 and 2020.

It was announced in December 2013 that No. 2 Squadron will be the fifth Typhoon Squadron and will convert from the Panavia Tornado and reform at RAF Lossiemouth from 1 April 2015.

By July 2014, a dozen RAF Tranche 2 Typhoons had been upgraded with Phase 1 Enhancement (P1E) capability to enable them to use the Paveway IV guided bomb; the Tranche 1 version had used the GBU-12 Paveway II in combat over Libya, but the Paveway IV can be set to explode above or beneath a target and to hit at a set angle. The British are aiming to upgrade their Typhoons to be able to carry the Storm Shadow cruise missile and Brimstone air-to-ground missile by 2018 to ensure they have manned aircraft configured with strike capabilities with trained crews by the time the Tornado GR4 is retired the following year; the Defence Ministry is also funding research for a common launcher system that could also drop the Selective Precision Effects at Range (Spear) III networked precision-guided weapon from the Typhoon, which is already planned for the F-35. RAF Tranche 1 Typhoons are too structurally and technically different from later models, so the British have decided that beginning in 2015 or 2016, the older models will be switched out for Tranche 2 and 3 versions, a process which will remove the Tranche 1 aircraft from service around 2020 to be stripped for parts to support newer versions to lower costs.

Due to the limited ground attack capabilities of the RAF Typhoons in the campaign against ISIL, the UK has delayed the retirement of one squadron of Tornados and is attempting to bring forward the deployment of Brimstone missiles on the Eurofighters to 2017.


Specifications
Crew: 1 (operational aircraft) or 2 (training aircraft)
Length: 15.96 m (52.4 ft)
Wingspan: 10.95 m (35.9 ft)
Height: 5.28 m (17.3 ft)
Wing area: 51.2 m²[311] (551 sq ft)
Empty weight: 11,000 kg[312][N 7] (24,250 lb)
Loaded weight: 16,000 kg[313][N 8] (35,270 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 23,500 kg[311] (51,800 lb)
Powerplant: 2 × Eurojet EJ200 afterburning turbofan
Dry thrust: 60 kN (13,490 lbf) each
Thrust with afterburner: >90 kN[312][314] (20,230 lbf) each
Fuel capacity: 5,000 kg (11,020 lb) internal
Maximum speed:
At altitude: Mach 2 class[317] (2,495 km/h or 1,550 mph)
At sea level: Mach 1.25[310] (1,470 km/h or 910 mph)
Supercruise: Mach 1.5
Range: 2,900 km (1,800 mi)
Combat radius:
(with 3 external 1,000 l tanks)
Ground attack, lo-lo-lo: 601 km (325 nmi)
Ground attack, hi-lo-hi: 1,389 km (750 nmi)
Air defence with 3-hr combat air patrol: 185 km (100 nmi)
Air defence with 10-min. loiter: 1,389 km (750 nmi)
Ferry range: >3,790 km (2,350 mi with 3 drop tanks)
Service ceiling: 19,812 m (65,000 ft)
Rate of climb: >315 m/s[324] (62,000 ft/min)
Wing loading: 312 kg/m²[311] (63.9 lb/ft²)
Thrust/weight: 1.15 (interceptor configuration)
Maximum g-load: +9/−3 g
Brakes-off to Take-off acceleration: <8 sec
Brakes-off to supersonic acceleration: <30 s
Brakes-off to Mach 1.6 at 11,000 m (36,000 ft): <150 s
Guns: 1 × 27 mm Mauser BK-27 revolver cannon with 150 rounds
Hardpoints: Total of 13: 8 × under-wing; and 5 × under-fuselage pylon stations; holding up to 7,500 kg (16,500 lb) of payload
Typical multi-role configuration for a Tranche 2-P1E would be 4×AMRAAM, 2×ASRAAM/IRIS-T, 4×EGBU-16/Paveway-IV, 2×1000-litre supersonic fuel tanks and a targeting pod.[329]
Missiles:
Air-to-air missiles:
AIM-120 AMRAAM (AIM-120C-5/7 planned for P2E)
AIM-132 ASRAAM
AIM-9 Sidewinder
IRIS-T
MBDA Meteor
Air-to-surface missiles:
AGM-65 Maverick,
AGM-88 HARM,
Brimstone
Taurus KEPD 350
Storm Shadow/Scalp EG
SPEAR
Bombs:
Paveway II/III/Enhanced Paveway series of laser-guided bombs (LGBs)
500lb Paveway IV
Small Diameter Bomb (planned for P2E)
Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), in the future
HOPE/HOSBO, in the future
Others:
Flares/infrared decoys dispenser pod
chaff pods
Electronic countermeasures (ECM) pods
Damocles (targeting pod)
LITENING III laser targeting pod
Up to 3 drop tanks for ferry flight or extended range/loitering time
Avionics:
Euroradar CAPTOR Radar
Passive Infra-Red Airborne Tracking Equipment (PIRATE)


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SKB
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Re: Typhoon

Post by SKB »

Experimental RAF Typhoon fitted with the latest advanced weaponry at BAE, Warton

marktigger
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Re: Typhoon

Post by marktigger »

will we get anti radar capability or antiship missile?

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The Armchair Soldier
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Re: Typhoon

Post by The Armchair Soldier »

marktigger wrote:will we get anti radar capability or antiship missile?
I think the only "anti-ship" missile the RAF will have in the foreseeable future (or at least, before anything like Perseus arrives) is SPEAR, but I don't know if that's even destined for Typhoon. As for anti-radar, there was a conceptualised anti-radar version of METEOR knocking about a few years ago, but apart from that, nothing as far as I'm aware.

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Re: Typhoon

Post by marktigger »

Spannish have Harpoon listed on theirs would have been a good interim position to have taken though suspect the Air launched ones held for the Nimrod have long since been sold/scrapped

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Re: Typhoon

Post by jonas »

marktigger wrote:Spannish have Harpoon listed on theirs would have been a good interim position to have taken though suspect the Air launched ones held for the Nimrod have long since been sold/scrapped
I would have thought that given Harpoon is in its twilight years, the cost of integrating it with Typhoon would have been considered prohibitive. As the US is looking towards LRASM to replace it, I would suggest we might see the air launched version but on the F35B not Typhoon, although given SPEAR even that may not be considered.

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Re: Typhoon

Post by jonas »

The Armchair Soldier wrote:
marktigger wrote:will we get anti radar capability or antiship missile?
I think the only "anti-ship" missile the RAF will have in the foreseeable future (or at least, before anything like Perseus arrives) is SPEAR, but I don't know if that's even destined for Typhoon. As for anti-radar, there was a conceptualised anti-radar version of METEOR knocking about a few years ago, but apart from that, nothing as far as I'm aware.
In ref to SPEAR, following is an extract from a 'Flightglobal' article published in Jan this year on Typhoon upgrades.

'Now an active programme, the P2E phase will integrate MBDA’s Meteor beyond visual-range air-to-air missile and the same company’s Storm Shadow cruise missile. The subsequent P3E activity will integrate its Brimstone system, with Spear 3 to follow – which is also slated for use with the UK’s F-35Bs.'

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Phil R
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Re: Typhoon

Post by Phil R »

Recommended read for those who are interested:
https://www.rusi.org/downloads/assets/W ... _Power.pdf

Phil R

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Pseudo
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Re: Typhoon

Post by Pseudo »

Phil R wrote:Recommended read for those who are interested:
https://www.rusi.org/downloads/assets/W ... _Power.pdf

Phil R
That was pretty interesting. Thanks for posting the link.

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Re: Typhoon

Post by RetroSicotte »

Surge in Jet Purchases Reshuffles Market

http://www.defensenews.com/story/defens ... /26977289/

Just an article on the recent purchases, but here's this interesting jit at the bottom...I normally ignore mention of the Saudi follow on order just being called because it's possible, but check this one out.

The best near term hope for sales, though, is a top up of the 72-strong fleet of Typhoons ordered by Saudi Arabia in a government-to-government deal. Industry executives in London have said there could be progress on a Saudi deal by the end of this year for 48 or more jets, with a possible order for Bahrain following.

The prospects of a new deal with the Saudis has, if not improved, then not diminished by the re-election of a Conservative government in London more engaged in defense diplomacy and exports to the region than a Labour administration would have been.

BAE Systems is responsible for the Typhoon export drive in the rest of the gulf region with Alenia Aermacchi leading the Kuwaiti sales effort. The Italian aerospace company declined to comment on news of the proposed sale of the F/A-18s. A second industry executive in London said that there are hopes Typhoon could be part of a split buy by the Kuwatis, but he conceded that would be unlikely if the F/A-18 order ends up being 40 jets.

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Re: Typhoon

Post by jonas »

The current situation in the Gulf might also focus Saudi minds, that they live in a very volatile area,which can change by the month
Only last year relations between the Gulf states and Iran seemed to be taking a turn for the better. Some states even delaying any purchase of aircraft that they had previously been interested in.

The situation in the Yemen seems for the time being at least, to have made any such further rapprochement unlikely. With Saudi leading the coalition in strikes against the rebels, which are funded and armed by Iran things have taken a decided turn for the worse.

I'm sure some of these GCC countries will be having a long hard look at future procurement, in the very near future.


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Re: Typhoon

Post by RetroSicotte »

Deal Will Bring Selex Infrared Tech to US

http://www.defensenews.com/story/defens ... /26508459/
As the market grows for infrared search and track (IRST) sensors that can function like radars on fighters, one American firm has signed a deal with a European counterpart that will bring to the US infrared technologies already honed on the Eurofighter.

Northrop Grumman has launched a partnership with Italian firm Selex ES under which Selex's infrared know-how will enter the US and possibly be turned around for export products for Foreign Military Sales customers.

"Selex has partnered with Northrop Grumman to bring IRST to the US," a Northrop Grumman spokeswoman told Defense News, adding that further details on the applications for new IRST products would be announced in May.

The deal pushes into the US market the technology Selex has worked on for the Eurofighter's PIRATE (passive infrared airborne tracking equipment) sensor, for the European Neuron UCAV technology demonstrator, and, most recently, for Sweden's Gripens.

...

Meanwhile, the firm is waiting for an order to upgrade the PIRATE sensor on Eurofighters.


PIRATE is already a top end IRST system, an upgrade can only mean good things.

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Re: Typhoon

Post by The Armchair Soldier »

RAF Jets Escort Russian Aircraft
RAF Typhoon fighter jets were scrambled after two Russian military aircraft were seen flying towards UK airspace, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said.

The British jets were launched from RAF Lossiemouth after the Russian planes were spotted north of Scotland.

An MoD spokesman said: "At no time did the Russian military aircraft cross into UK sovereign airspace."

The Russian bombers were not deemed to be a threat, he added.

The aircraft were identified as Russian "Bear" strategic bombers.

It is the latest of several similar incidents involving Russian military aircraft flying close to UK airspace.
Read More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32740942


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Re: Typhoon

Post by shark bait »

That looks awesome! looking forward to seeing the typhoon and spitfire display together this year!
Kinda looks like a mini Vulcan in that paint.
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Re: Typhoon

Post by bobp »

Indeed the typhoon does look awesome in WWII colours, far better than the all grey scheme currently in use.


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shark bait
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Re: Typhoon

Post by shark bait »

Nice clip, can really see the canard working trying to keep the low speed stability!
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Dave
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Re: Typhoon

Post by Dave »

Battle of Britain styled Typhoon does look good.
http://www.itv.com/news/2015-05-21/raf- ... niversary/

Image

Along with one of its older brethren, which the Telegraph seemed to think was a Spitfire :shock:.


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Re: Typhoon

Post by Tony Williams »

Dave wrote:
Along with one of its older brethren, which the Telegraph seemed to think was a Spitfire :shock:.
Oh dear. The Telegraph is the one newspaper which I would have assumed would get that right! :roll:

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Re: Typhoon

Post by jonas »


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Re: Typhoon

Post by downsizer »

Mmmmmmmmmm, manufacturers propaganda makes sex wee come out :lol:

Seriously though if we'd funded the latter development properly and bought some spares instead of cannibalising everything we'd have a much more potent aircraft.

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Re: Typhoon

Post by marktigger »

problem is in the original buys the spares packages never envisaged the amount of operational work Typhoon would now be doing remember the contracts were drawn up when peace was breaking out and we were all going to be friends and the cold war was over.

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