Originally Posted by
Jackonicko
They should give 100 the Tranche 1 Typhoons and then treat those as an entirely separate fleet. TyTAN makes them cheap to support and operate, and a low level obsolescence removal upgrade should be affordable (perhaps using the Spanish T1 upgrade as a model?) while the lack of commonality or compatability with the T2/3 op fleet would surely then be irrelevant?
Under the Review the T1 Typhoons will only last until 2025. I presume this means 9(B) and 12(B) will follow Tatty Ton onto the retired list unless others are sacrificed instead.
CAS's public position is clearly that RAF operated aggressors are not necessary. I don't think I need to tell most here that as with all statements by a VVSO, it will support the current Government's line irrespective of personal views.
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“The reason that we are in a position to retire the very first 30 Eurofighters that came into Royal Air Force service is because those aircraft have got the very first versions of the mission computers, wiring and hardware,” Wigston said on 31 March. “The development of the later batches of Eurofighter have developed far beyond what the [first] airframes were capable of.
“The things I can do with my most modern Eurofighters is unrecognisable compared to what I can do with the Tranche 1. These days I use them predominantly for adversary aggressor flying, to train the rest of my force,” he notes.“I don’t see this as any diminishing of the frontline capability for the Royal Air Force.”
I however would be interested in the opinions of current or former Warfare Officers on the ability of fully synthetic training for fighting a whole ship in the AAW role
. I can't think the loss of all 1790 hours flying is welcome.
As I posted on the
Qatar/RAF Hawk Sqn thread it was announced in January this year that 736 Naval Air Squadron was to disband on 30 September 2021 with 100 Squadron assuming the Maritime tasking role from 1 October 2021. The allotted annual flying task of 1790 hours will continue and will be provided by 100 Sqn using the Hawk TMK1A aircraft. Does it still make sense to transfer the task for only 6 months?
This makes me feel old, when I remember being excited seeing the newly delivered first few Hawks for 4 FTS & CFS at Valley when I was a child.