Typhoons to be scrapped in 2015
 

According to an article in today's Sunday Times a senior Air Force officer (would appear to be AVM Bagwell) has said that the Typhoon will be approaching obsolescence by 2015 after 8 years in service. R.I.P. the RAF. :(

Guess it'll still be in service in 2040 though. TBH its not unreasonable, in service for 8 years but the design would have been frozen sometime in the mid 90's. As a consortium design there are always built in delays in major changes which are less likely to be a problem for some other companies. It should be no surprise (to a realist anyway) that things move on, the next generations of aircraft are testing elsewhere in the world.

The article refers to Tranche 1 of the Typhoon, which is 'uneconomic to bring up to Tranche 3 standard', not the whole of the Typhoon fleet.

Equivalent to replacing Mk 1 Spitfires with Mk Vs etc.

RAF will retain 92 later model Typhoons. Still not enough though.

Wow - that's something not seen written on PPRuNe for a very long time. Most on here seem to think one Typhoon is too many ....! :E

This says approaching obselescence. Where does it say or indicate will be withdrawn from service? Apart from the seemingly misleading thread title that is! And in any event, what does the good AVM or whoever imagine will replace it? UAVs? I understand they are not seen as a panacea for anything at present.

Is this the rumour mill pumping out field fertilizer again.

FB:)

If you read it you will find it says that AVM Bagwell told Aviation week that trance 1 typhoons would not be required after 2015. He further said that the jet would become prohibitive for us to operate and too expensive to modify.

I'd love to read it, but I'm afraid that when I set off to work this morning the papershops was still shut. Since then Ihaven't had a chance to nip out and buy one. Further I'm certainly not igning up to an internet scam to hand over a £1 everytime I want to have a quick look at an article like this on their website. Therefore, yes, I may need someone to explain a little more beyond the sensational headline "Typhoons to be scrapped in 2015.":confused:

FB:)

Good old Wiki- the reference is posted below before the inane sneering begins

Fowler HW and Fowler FG (1st ed.), Thompson Delia (ed.) (1995). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, 9th Ed., Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Most countries on the planet would love a couple of squadrons of Typhoons, some of which are quite wealthy. But then again they don't think they are still a huge empire with all the morale standing of a global policeman, to go round the world sticking their nose in and killing people.

Japan and Germany, who are both more successful and richer than us do perfectly well with such aircraft types, and without aircraft carriers!

Tonker - Pardon a query, I cannot make out whether your post is dripping sarcasm or not! Singling out Japan and Germany for their admirably isolationist foreign policy, and ergo lack of carriers, is a little historically limited. If it was a joke or a fish, well done, if somewhat obvious.

tonker What do you call this?

Hyuga class helicopter destroyer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Its too early to work out to be honest. All i'm saying is, as a small bankrupt island off Europe what do we need. Can the Typhoon defend our skies and deter a ship born invasion etc?

I actually think its good news for defence spending as more new pictures of Chinese Stealth aircraft are published etc,but unless it has a 20,000 mile range or Ireland buys it, we should have nothing to be worried about. I still think there is underlying post Imperial thinking in this country when it comes to defence and its strategic goals, but you have to cut your cloth.

Yamagata ken...i call it a helicopter carrier, and jolly useful it will be considering all those diesel electric subs that are awash in the region.

"All i'm saying is, as a small bankrupt island off Europe what do we need."

Please let's put this nonsense to bed. We are not bankrupt but have a very large fiscal deficit as a consequence of too much Public Spending over a long period to which we then added the cost of rescuing the Banking Sector.

Post World War 1 we were skint as was the case again in 1945. Postwar there have been few times when we have not had some form of economic crisis! It did not stop the creation of the NHS or the V Force or us buying Polaris and Trident.

Defence has seldom been a real priority for any UK Government. For Tonker and others this presents no issue as there is no longer a threat to the UK homeland. For others our reducing capability will put the UK's worldwide interests at risk.

We still have a pretty large Defence Budget. The suggestion that the RAF might delete the Tranch 1 Typhoons because of obsolesence and to save on running costs might explain why we seem to end up with so little to show for the money spent!

What is the viability and likelihood of adding an extra 15 aircraft to the end of the tranche 3 order to replace those going to Oman? :(

Zero. HMG Has washed Its hands of this out dated product. Even my friends in the RAF think its yesterdays news.

Yamagata Ken,

That's not the best, have you seen Japan's planned new "helicopter destroyer"

22DDH helicopter destroyer | Japan Security Watch

Tonker,
Couldn't resist a nibble.
As for LPH, Destroyer, Through deck Cruiser or Carrier. You say potato! etc etc

"What they refer too is the first model of the Typhoon Aircraft, the Batch 1 The standard of aircraft is far from standard against the normal production (Block 8) aircraft produced today in handling, performance and also in the standard avionic systems fitted."

So we just delete the Tranche 1 airframes as they don't have bells and whistles? Remind me, what was the spec for Typhoon before all this swing role stuff was added!

Short of an attack by the Russians, what do we really need to defend UK airspace against the potential threat in the near future? Hawks would probably suffice!

If this nonsense has any basis in fact, the RAF will deserve to end up with smaller and smaller numbers of FJ's that are always being updated due to their impending obsolesence:ugh:

1) Tranche 1, not Batch 1, all of which have been or are being brought to Block 5 standards via the R1/R2 upgrades.

2) The difference between Block 5 and Block 8 lies in the latter having a different forward bulkhead (notionally allowing later AESA retrofit) and new processors, on which the same software is hosted.

3) As of today, Block 5 aircraft have an air-to-ground capability while Block 8 aircraft do not.

4) Please justify the claims for differences in handling, performance and specific avionics systems. I don't think there are any.

Other than that, good post

With regard to tranche 1, it's good to know we rushed an obsolete bit of kit in to service several years late and way over budget.

:confused:

So why can't subs submerge around there? Or are you saying that it isn't any use when they are submerged?