Typhoon Upgrades
 

Say what you will about the early years of Typhoon but right now it is fielding ASRAAM, AMRAAM, Meteor, Paveway 4, Brimstone 2, Storm Shadow and the Gun!

The go to Combat Air platform right now.
It has been a long road for the jet but finally it is paying off.

Mr Vice.

Mr V
 

Did the conformal fuel tanks get binned for good?

Bob Viking , your sneering deprecation of your seniors does you absolutely no favours.

Typhoon suffered only from protracted development, but ever since it entered service it has been a superlative aircraft, which finally gave the RAF a first rate fighter aircraft. Since then it has also proved itself in the air to ground role. I recall an IoM towline trip working with a pair pre-production Eurofighters; used to the rather sedate performance of the Tornado F3 when leaving the tanker with full tanks, the request from the Eurofighter to climb into a block of airspace at around FL500 on leaving the tanker was quite a surprise, as was its subsequent departure and impressive climb.

One hopes that the niggardly procurement policies of earlier years, leading to the nonsense of 'fleets within fleets' will not be foist upon the Typhoon and that all aircraft will receive the 'sensor upgrades'.

Those who would view earlier generation aircraft through rose-tinted spectacles might care to remember:

Vulcan - revolutionary in its day, particularly in its B2 form. But the EW suite was a complete joke and was never adequately upgraded. The AAR system was allowed to deteriorate, as was the conventional bombing system. When South Atlantic War came along, a frantic scramble and the raiding of some museums and station scrap heaps provided just enough to make the aircraft adequately capable. EW kit had to be begged and borrowed from other fleets, as had the single INS.

Lightning - again, revolutionary in its day with shattering performance. But it suffered from short range and for many years lacked a head sector capability. Overland, the limitations of a pulse radar against low flying targets, particularly in an EW environment, were only too clear.

Phantom - the UK's decision to use the RR Spey caused huge problems in the early days of RAF service. But it became a very good multi-role platform, although the radar required considerable skill from the navigator and the aircraft itself had some significant vices at high AoA. Then in later years the air to ground role was virtually abandoned until air to ground strafe was brought back in to the inventory after the South Atlantic War.

Harrier - again, another revolutionary UK aircraft. But it required very high levels of skill to operate and until the GR3, lacked sufficient thrust on many occasions. Later marks bore little resemblance to earlier marks, but the ultimate F/A 2 with AMRAAM, Blue Fox and Link16 was a superb ship borne interceptor which should still be in service.

Jaguar - early versions were woefully underpowered and the cockpit ergonomics were pretty lethal. But it gave a very good account of itself over Iraq, both during the war and afterwards in armed policing; the ultimate version had an excellent avionic system but the lack of thrust was never really resolved.

Hunter - underpowered and with inadequate fuel in its early versions and with significant gun firing problems in the Avon powered version until a somewhat primitive solution was provided. It came of age in its F6 variant, but its air to air role was compromised by the lack of any missile capability and a primitive radar ranging system.

Buccaneer - only came into RAF service after cancellation of TSR-2 and F-111. But the crews worked wonders with such a very demanding aircraft; had the radar and nav/attack systems been upgraded to Tornado standard it would have been exceptional. During my AAR sorties working with mixed Buccaneer / Tornado formations during GW1, the benefits of the Buccaneer's fuel capacity were abundantly clear!

Tornado - an excellent air to ground aircraft which was continually upgraded over the years, providing the RAF with superb service. Whereas the Tornado ADV was an utter joke in its early days. The F2 was seriously underpowered and couldn't meet the spec with more than 6 missiles. Radar of the 'Blue Circle' variety was initially quite appalling. But over the years the aircraft was developed into an exceptional air to air platform, with the final iteration of Foxhunter, AMRAAM, Link 16 and cunning SOPs. Retired prematurely though.

But it seems that the painful lessons of previous years have been learned as regards Typhoon, which just gets better and better. Particularly when operating in concert with F-35B, I gather!

BV
 

BEagle
 

Still no AESA ?
 

...
Recent headline .... "Captor-E on the horizon."

Bone question ... "Can Captor-M see that far ?"



....

Plus: IFF will now consider EU airplanes hostile.

Beags

If the RAF (not procurers - nothing to do with them) decides to have fleets within fleets, I would have a little more confidence than previously. I recall one of the first posts they advertised way back when it was EFA was a Configuration Control Manager. Other aircraft offices at the time were being actively stripped of funding, as it was considered a waste of money. But the now jobless CCMs from those offices couldn't apply for EFA, as they'd graded it 3 grades higher - a good sign in away, but tempting fate. Nevertheless, there was an understanding lacking in other parts of MoD.

I think Bob V was having a quiet shot at some of the normal reactions on here................. I thought he was spot on - in a humorous fashion............. :ok:

RAF Typhoons are now pretty much split into two variants "Tranche 1" jets which are Air-Air only and the Tranche 2 and 3 aircraft which are now a common standard known as "P3E" software which are fully multi-role.

The fleets within fleets problem has mostly gone away. A frontline Squadron is equipped with P3E standard jets.

There are a great deal of weapons and sensors for a new JP to Typhoon to get their head around.

Mr Vice.

But he wasn't wrong! :ok:

Why are the Tranche 1 Typhoons unable to be updated ? What exactly makes it so prohibitive ?

Physical differences between the 3 different build tranches, Tranche 1 Typhoons are significantly different enough internally to Tranche 2/3 that upgrade further than the current Tranche 1 Block 5 (which does include air-to-ground capability, contrary to what some folk believe) is not viable. This is purely from memory so may well not be 'totally' accurate, but I understand that the internal avionics racks/bulkheads, amongst other things, are where the issue arises...

-RP

Ah yes.I thought it may be a modular thing.Thanks.

Twin seat T1 variants if I recall