PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - How much fast air to support 1) a Brigade, 2) a Division
Old 19th Jan 2011, 23:59
  #45 (permalink)  
Jackonicko
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
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Not "quite wrong actually". My source is current and reliable.
No, QUITE wrong. Typhoon is not a single role air defence aircraft (though the Tranche 2 aircraft currently being delivered are, temporarily, as I hope is explained below).

This is because the software required for the Austere A-G capability (CP193) is UK only, and Tranche 1 only, though it could quite easily be 'ported' to Tranche 2.

Typhoon is already a multi role aeroplane (via CP193) though aircraft numbers and training hours mean that the existing squadrons (which are effectively tied to the UK AD/Falklands/QRA commitment) cannot actually exercise it.

The T1 Typhoons have demonstrated their ability to drop and self designate in Red Flag, Green Flag West and at least one Magic Carpet, but with 3 squadrons and less than 17.5 hours per pilot per month, it simply isn't possible to keep the capability going. Which is why journos like me have asked why we spent all that money on CP193 in the first place?

With FCP arriving in c.2015, Typhoon (including Tranche 2) will be employing all of the weapons carried by Tornado. Not ALARM, which will have gone, but strafe, EPW, PWIV, Dual Mode Brimstone, and soon afterwards Storm Shadow too.
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