The briefing referred to occurred at the Paris Air Show on Sunday. I was not present then, though I have spoken to people who were, from both industry and the media side. Opinions as to the 'rudeness' and 'appropriateness' of questions varies, but it's fair to say that there may be some mutual lack of understanding!
I would say that I do not believe that anyone was being 'disingenuous or dishonest'.
The briefing was re-run today for stragglers who missed the Sunday event.
My understanding is that yesterday, Squadron Leaders Joel and Woods did confirm that Typhoon HAS self-designated targets, but that it does not ROUTINELY do so, and they certainly confirmed that today, with great clarity. Some of those present yesterday thought that they had said as much then, but seemingly with less clarity as some very distinguished journo chums missed it.
I understand that Typhoon has flown in 'Typhoon ONLY' pairs, co-operatively and self designating for LGBs carried by Typhoon, but that mixed Typhoon/Tornado pairs are more usual, and are preferred, though Squadron Leader Joel said today that in such cases the Typhoon stands ready to designate should the Tornado's Litening pod go tech or be unavailable for any other reason. It's clear that Litening on Typhoon is useable and useful.
With regard to the Libyan op, it is being watched with great interest in places like India and Qatar, and the impression given is that the Rafale is performing well, underlining its multi-role and Omni role credentials (this may be a slightly misleading impression) because the French air force and Dassault are being very open about exactly what the aircraft has been doing.
The impression of Typhoon has been less positive, tending to support the inaccurate 'narrow single role AD aircraft/Cold War dinosaur' stereotype peddled by Lewis Page and his ilk. This seems to be pretty misleading, but is a direct consequence of a media policy which, until now, seems to have been to underplay what Typhoon has been doing - perhaps in an understandable desire to ensure that Tornado's continuing vital importance is not eclipsed.
The impression hitherto given has been that Typhoon has been serving as little more than a bomb truck, with Tornado doing all of the 'clever stuff'. The briefings yesterday and today serve to usefully counter that impression, though the impression that only a handful of Typhoon pilots have 'self designated' remains strong among the media and other onlookers (and this impression has yet to be corrected).
The briefings may also serve to reassure the UK taxpayer that the austere air to ground programme for Typhoon has resulted in a useful and useable capability (thereby offering value for money), and that the oft maligned Tranche 1 Typhoons do offer a useful multi-role capability.
Last edited by Jackonicko; 20th Jun 2011 at 17:44.