View Full Version : Tornado F3 / AMRAAM
Navaleye
8th Jul 2002, 11:05
The telegraph reported a couple of weeks ago that the F3 will not carry AMRAAMs due to an incompatibility with the Foxhunter Radar. Does anyone have any inside track on the truth of this story. It seems extraodinary in the days of electronic bench testing that they have to wait for a live firing to find this incompatibility, which makes me question its accuracy.
Is the Skyflash still a viable weapon?
see 'keystone kops go flying' thread on page 3 of this forum
BEagle
8th Jul 2002, 17:09
Public Health Warning!
This is possibly a bit close to inviting someone to reveal capabilities which should not be discussed in a public forum.
Jackonicko
9th Jul 2002, 00:51
BEagle,
have a dekko at the Keystone thread - and read between the lines. The Telegraph story is now discredited as having been very out of date and quite inaccurate anyway.
Look, in particular at the contract date for AOP.
Hope to buy you a frosty at Farnborough!
Chris Kebab
9th Jul 2002, 15:22
No fears anybody - it's all in the latest edition of RAF News including mis-ident denials and mention of AOP at a cool £28M.
Dukeyboy
6th Aug 2002, 23:29
A good friend of mine's father is a major player with Janes so everything I'm about to say is in the public domain and should in no way be considered protectively marked. Furthermore, all the information disclosed below is according to the Janes Information Group and as such is likely to be more accurate than the Telegraph.
The article was B@ll@cks. There are no 'problems' with the AMRAAM, apart from the fact that it's American.
Hope this clears a few things up, again, this is not proffesional knowledge (I'm not an F3 pilot) but it's straight from Janes.
"There are no 'problems' with the AMRAAM, apart from the fact that it's American. "
When in an air to air engagement, who made the missile I am about to fire is irrelevant. What is relevant is whether it is the most capable. Anyone out there have any ideas of a better missile than the AMRAAM. I have been out of the fast mover biz for quite a few years now.
Jackonicko
7th Aug 2002, 23:06
The nationality of a missile is relevant only if you think you might get a down-graded export version, or if support my be doubtful right when you need it......... Or if you're trying to export an AMRAAM-reliant aircraft to a nation not cleared to receive AMRAAM.
maxburner
8th Aug 2002, 08:05
JN,
The way it works is:
You set an operational requirement. You look at what meets the requirement, and what could be built to meet it. Then you select. You dont buy the AMRAAM hoping you dont get a downgraded version. You buy it because it meets the need.
As for export, that's what Meteor is for, isn't it?
Anyway, this thread is about Tornado and AMRAAM. Did you know that BAE may be forced to give up its development F3s due to DLO's blowing the budget? So much for long term support, capability to react to changes, upgrades in capability etc. Short term thinking or what. But that's what you get when you hand over procurement to amatuers - engineers mostly who do a job for 2 years and then move on. DLO is a failure, but thats for another thread sometime.:mad: