GR4 life and typhoon

[hulahoop7]

How much life have the GR4 airframes really got left in them. Are they really worth an AESA upgrade, and should the RAF be pushing the tranche 3 as a GR4 replacement? i.e. isn't this a way of keeping pressure on the Treasury to keep the 232 numbers up..

[Jackonicko]

The RAF 'wisely' binned its lowest-houred Tornado GRs and then upgraded some of the high time aircraft to GR4. It then failed to do the Tornado 2000 upgrade that would have transformed the OCU GR1s into GR4 emulators, keeping hours off the op fleet. And has since managed to exceed the planned hours and FI usage.

The GR4 was planned to last to 2018, and the OSD has been slid back to 2025, which is about as far as it can possibly go.

Would it be wise and cost effective to replace some or all of the GR4s with Typhoons? Of course it would.

Is it going to happen?

[MightyFinWarrior]

The GR4 won't be replaced by any new Typhoons as long as the Nav Union has anything to do with it ... they're struggling for things to do at the moment!

[The Helpful Stacker]

Hey, don't belittle the nav union, they are a powerful body of people.

How do you think the Strike Eagle and Super Hornet really came about?;)

[pr00ne]

The Helpful Stacker,

Hhhmmm....................

Remind me again how many navs on the B-2, or F-22 or F-35?

[Double Zero]

Proone,

shurely shome mistake ?

I reckon the B-2 has at least one nav', and I would be surprised if the F-22 and maybe CTOL versions at least of the F-35 end up with 2-seat versions ?

Meanwhile the F-15E seems something not to be on the wrong end of...

[Archimedes]

00 - I believe that the B-2 has an Aircraft Commander and a Mission Commander, both of whom are pilots. Not sure without checking which of the two commanders is the captain...

A two-seat version of the F-22 is very unlikely, I'd have thought, although you tend to find that navs continue working without having to be reset to Eastern Standard Time when you cross the interntional dateline...:E

[Affirmatron]

AESA upgrade is a cost-effective upgrade for an aircraft doing a good job. Tornado GR4 will be in service until 2035. All Typhoons will be sold to France, just before we need them before the war with Russia. Or not.

The 'real' decisions can only able to be made by those who know the truth about Tornado capabilities AESA and Typhoon plans, budgets, future conflicts etc.

[pr00ne]

Double Zero,

No, no mistake.

B-2 flown by 2 pilots and the F-22 and F-35 won't even have 2 seat variants.

When the GR4 bows out it will be the end of the FJ Nav in the RAF (at last...)

To my erstwhile F-4 navs of old, "I've got 300 hours without a navigator, how many have you got without a pilot?"

;)