Royal Air Force (RAF): News

United Kingdom signed a contract for the purchase of 40 fighter "Typhoon-Eurofighter"
03.08.2009

LONDON, July 31. (Korr.ITAR-TASS). United Kingdom today signed a contract worth 3 million fnt st. for the purchase of 40 European fighter "Typhoon" association "Eurofighter", said a representative of the Ministry of Defense Quentin Davies.

The contract was signed in Munich as a result of an agreement reached after lengthy negotiations between the British "BAE Systems and other foreign producers of government military vehicles and equipment. "This is good news for our armed forces and for British industry" - Davis said, noting that through an agreement signed by the Government of the country will be able to provide 15 thousand jobs.

Under the agreement, British company Rolls-Royce "will supply engines for the new party fighters of" Typhoon. " Radar installations for these aircraft will be made at a factory in Edinburgh (Scotland), belonging to an international company SELEX Galileo. The first of the new fighter aircraft joined the Royal Air Force in 2013

Total UK intends to acquire approximately 88 "Typhoon" in the third stage of the production of European "Eurofighter". However, since 2007 the UK Ministry of Defense has repeatedly tried to reduce this number or even completely cancel the tentative agreement.

http://www.itar-tass.com/

RAF Dropping to 6 Fast-Jet Units
By ANDREW CHUTER
Published: 11 Dec 2010 11:45


LONDON - Britain may halve its fast-jet fleet by 2020 or so, according to the commanding officer of the Royal Air Force's No. 1 Group.
A British Royal Air Force Typhoon F2 flies in close formation with a RAF Tornado F3. (Courtesy of U.K. Ministry of Defence)

"We are heading for five Typhoon squadrons and one JSF [Joint Strike Fighter] squadron," said Air Vice-Marshal Greg Bagwell, who commands the RAF's air combat group. "It will be a six-squadron world; that's what's on the books."

That could mean 107 Typhoons, plus about 40 F-35C JSFs that support a large operational squadron of 20 to 25 crews, Bagwell said.

Typhoon numbers could be clipped even further if Britain and Oman seal a deal to send the Persian Gulf nation about a squadron's worth of aircraft. The planes could be diverted from an existing RAF order; the question is whether they will then later be replaced, he said.

In 1990, the RAF had 33 fast-jet squadrons; in 2003, 17. Today, the number stands at 12: seven Tornado, three Typhoon and two Harrier squadrons, plus the offensive firepower of a growing fleet of Reaper UAVs.

By April, Britain will be down to eight fast-jet squadrons, thanks to the retirement of the Harriers and the shelving of two Tornado units.

The Tornado force has already been eroded by a covert 2009 order from the previous Labour administration to cut the number of crews in each squadron. But that number is expected to return to its previous level next year as squadrons are eliminated and crews shift around.

Those cuts, and others, were ordered by an October decision to ax defense spending over the next four years as part of a wider government plan to reduce public borrowing levels. The cuts bit deep into RAF capabilities; other reductions hit battlefield surveillance, maritime reconnaissance, helicopter transport and other capabilities.

"Six squadrons is the low point for the U.K.'s fast jet fleet," one analyst said. "You can expect that to recover a little as the Ministry of Defence bolsters its force of Joint Strike Fighters beyond the current level mandated in the new strategic defense and security review."

Bagwell was less sanguine. He called the first JSF squadron a "start point" and said more may come, but for the moment, "I expect a single squadron in 2020 and that's it."

Other senior RAF officers have said they aim eventually to operate around 100 F-35Cs, which will split their time operating from land bases and from the new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers being built for the Royal Navy.

Bagwell said the fast-jet cuts were challenging but manageable so long as the RAF is not tasked to do much more than its current deployments: Tornados to the NATO effort in Afghanistan, and Typhoons to quick reaction alert (QRA) forces in Britain and the Falkland Islands.

"Am I happy to be down at that number [eight squadrons] next April? No, it worries the hell out of me because it's a small combat air force," he said. "I can just about do Op Herrick [Afghanistan] and the QRAs. Can I do other things? Yes, but it is at risk.

"Actually, I am more worried about what other people think I can do tomorrow," he said. "The whole thing about procurement and posture is as much about long-term future deterrence and keeping the enemy on the back foot as it is about physically fighting. The deterrence and coercive effect of air power has somehow got lost in the noise."
Typhoon Questions

Bagwell said the RAF would likely ax its 55 Tranche 1 Typhoons by mid-decade because it would cost too much to bring them up to the required multirole standards offered by Tranche 2 and Tranche 3. That would mean the RAF Typhoon fleet would top out at 107 machines.

But the Typhoon fleet could shrink even further, Bagwell said.

The "great unknown in the plans is the awful lot of potential export customers," he said.

The proposed deal with Oman is in the final stages of negotiation; discussions are now underway about where those dozen or so aircraft might come from. The RAF's Typhoon force could fall further if the planes are diverted from the Air Force's order and are not replaced.

Difficulties in Britain's 72-plane sale to Saudi Arabia are creating more uncertainty. The first 24 are being diverted from the RAF's Tranche 2 order, and the service is to get more Tranche 3 aircraft instead. The other 48 are to be assembled in Saudi Arabia as part of an effort to build up local industry.

But industry sources said the plan has run into difficulties that raise questions about how Britain will fill the Saudi order.

Bagwell said options could include taking additional aircraft from the RAF production run and replacing them later.

"Should we get the buybacks out of Saudi Arabia and Oman as planned, we will be back to the number of Typhoons I need," he said. "At the moment, if I don't get the [Omani] buyback and this is under discussion ... it could take me down to 95 aircraft."

He said any changes to RAF deliveries would affect the service's ability to train crews.

A spokesman for BAE Systems, which is helping to build the aircraft, said he couldn't comment on Saudi issues.

Bagwell also revealed:

■ The 2011 planning round could change the timing of the upgrade of Typhoon jets to a full multirole aircraft. Dubbed the Future Capabilities Program 2, it will allow the jets to carry Storm Shadow, Brimstone and other weapons.

■ The decision to switch the planned purchase of short-takeoff, vertical-landing F-35Bs to the conventional carrier C version will give the Air Force a true deep-penetration capability.

■ The Sentinel R1 surveillance capability, to be axed by the government after the Afghanistan war, could be replaced through programs like the Scavenger UAV and new active electronically scanned array radars on Typhoon and JSF.

■ The 2011 planning round may speed up creation of the final two Typhoon squadrons, now slated for 2015, by as much as a year.

Bagwell told reporters that the date on which the RAF hits six squadrons would depend in part on Ministry of Defence decisions about the drawdown of the Tornado strike aircraft as Typhoons arrive.

"We still need to hold on to a portion of the Tornado force, and it will be a very important decision for the next defense review [expected in 2015] as to how the crossover is achieved between Typhoon and Tornado," he said. "My gut instinct is that we will need at least two or three Tornado squadrons at the 2017 point, keeping the squadron numbers at the six to eight figure."

The Tornado fleet is currently scheduled to retire in 2021. The government recently announced a reduction in the number of Tornados required to sustain ongoing operations, known as force elements, from 40 to 18 by 2015.

Elizabeth Quintana, head of air power and technology at the Royal United Services Institute, said she didn't think air power suffered worse in the cuts than many other sectors.

"The benefit is that unlike the Army [spared the worst of the cuts due to the war in Afghanistan], the Air Force now knows what its configuration is going to look like in the 2017-2020 timeframe," she said. "Where aircraft numbers are going in the future and what impact unmanned combat air vehicles might have is too early to say. F-35 and Typhoon give you more capable platforms but with fewer numbers."

She noted that synthetic training will reduce the number of aircraft kept off the front lines.

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=5211718&c=EUR&s=AIR

RAF decommissioned TCB "Domino" V.1



TSAMTO, January 12. Royal Air Force until the end of January 2011 will be removed from service 10 training aircraft "Domini" v.1 within the requirements of the Strategic Review of national security (SDSR).

TCB "Domino" were used for training of operators of aircraft armament systems, "Nimrod» MRA.4 and Tornado, but since the decision not to accept the "Nimrod" on arms and to reduce over the next five years, double the number in service consisting of "Tornado" the need for data fusion no longer required.

After releasing the last set of students planned to reform the 55-th (backup) Squadron, armed with a composed "Domino".

TCB "Domino" Vol.1, which was in service with the RAF since 1965, is a version of the twin-engine jet aircraft "Hawker sat 125". In 1996 the aircraft passed the modernization that included installation of modern avionics package and rebuild the cabin.

East Lancashire Typhoon fighter jets face the axe

THE RAF is poised to axe more than 50 Lancashire-made fighter jets early just three years after they came into service.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) wants to retire 53 Tranche 1 Eurofighter Typhoons in 2015, despite them only coming into service in 2007 at a cost of £4.6billion, according to reports.

A senior military official said the first-phase Typhoons, which are manufactured by BAE Systems, would be ‘obsolete’ in five years’ time, the Sunday Times reported.

By then, more advanced Typhoons would have taken their place in the RAF’s fleet.

The move could affect BAE, which has service contracts on Typhoons as well as deals to build them.

The aircraft are manufactured in the UK by thousands of engineers at BAE’s Lancashire plants in Samlesbury and in Warton on the Fylde coast.

However the MoD signalled last year that more advanced tranches of the Typhoon would form the backbone of the RAF’s fleet until at least 2020.

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/business/8783568.East_Lancashire_Typhoon_fighter_jets_face_the_axe/

The greener grass for the UK has to do with money, and the grass in Russian MoD is looking far greener.

The U.K. Royal Air Force is looking to integrate MBDA’s Brimstone air-to-ground missile on its General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper UAV fleet.

The work, which will require trials to be conducted in the U.S., was described during a speech by U.K. Minister for Defense Equipment, Support and Technology Philip Dunne at the McKenna, Long and Aldridge law firm in Washington on April 23. Dunne said that the U.K. is “currently working together through the Big Safari Group in rapid prototyping a U.K. weapon, Brimstone, on a U.S. platform.”

U.K. Defense Ministry officials have since confirmed the contents of the speech, which revealed that the U.K. is looking to fit the British-manufactured weapon onto the Reaper. However, because the aircraft was purchased through the Foreign Military Sales system, it is the responsibility of the U.S. Air Force’s Big Safari program office to carry out the trials.

“At present we are investigating ways of deploying Brimstone from all RAF attack aircraft, including Reaper, with tests taking place in the U.S.,” a Defense Ministry official tells Aviation Week. “As part of our commitment to promote British business abroad, we regularly seek opportunities to demonstrate world-leading British technologies in order to support employment and investment in the U.K.”

No timescales have been set for the trials, although sources say the result of any trials are wanted “quickly.” The trials will be conducted in the U.S. so they do not effect Reaper operations in Afghanistan, where the U.K. currently has its five Reapers deployed.

RAF Reapers are currently operated in the armed reconnaissance role fitted with Lockheed Martin Hellfire missiles, and 500-lb. GBU-12 Paveway II laser guided bombs.

Brimstone has many of the characteristics of the Hellfire, and is built inside what is virtually the same airframe. With its dual-mode guidance, using both radar and millimetric seeker, the weapon can be used in a fire-and-forget mode with salvoes offering the ability to attack more than one target. The weapon was used to great effect in Libya during Operation Unified Protector, where it was fired from RAF Panavia Tornado GR4s, currently the only aircraft in the U.K. inventory capable of firing the weapon.

The push to fit the weapon to the Reaper again raises the suggestion that the U.K. Defense Ministry increasingly wants to keep its Reaper fleet beyond 2015. The five-strong fleet, soon to increase to 10, was purchased as an urgent operational requirement, and as such is currently only funded until the end of combat operations in Afghanistan in December 2014.

However, senior RAF officers have suggested the systems could be retained, although they could not be flown in the U.K. but would probably be kept in their storage boxes ready for rapid deployment. Pilots would instead simulate missions while take-off and recovery crews would continue training in the U.S.


http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.aspx?id=/article-xml/awx_05_03_2013_p0-576042.xml

UK holds biggest Air Force exercise in 13 years for "Russian attacks" - media

The Rising Panther air combat exercises were held on March 19 but information on the UK's war games was published in the media only on Sunday

LONDON, March 29. /TASS/. The UK’s Royal Air Force held the biggest exercise over British skies in the past 13 years to repel a Russian threat, The Sunday Times reported.

Russian Armed Forces to receive Buk-M3 air defense missile system before yearend — source

The Rising Panther air combat exercises were held on March 19 but information on the UK's war games was published in the media only on Sunday.

"The RAF has launched a series of air combat exercises to prepare for any ‘mass’ enemy air attack on the UK," the paper said, adding such large-scale air defense exercises over the British skies were held for the first time at least in the past 13 years.

According to the paper, the maneuvers involving more than 30 aircraft, including 20 Typhoon jet fighters and Tornado bombers were held in a day-long war game over the skies of northeast England earlier this month due to the increasingly frequent flights by Russian military aircraft in the international air space close to the UK’s territory.

Similar air defense exercises dubbed the Rising Panther are expected to be held regularly above the British skies, up to six times a year, the paper said.

RAF Rebuilds Weapon Stocks for IS Strikes

LONDON — Continuing Royal Air Force precision strikes against Islamic State (IS) targets in Iraq has prompted Britain's Ministry of Defence to open negotiations with Raytheon UK to replenish stocks of the company's Paveway IV weapon.

With RAF missile and bomb strikes against IS reaching the 300 mark since the first attacks in late September 2014, the MoD said a new order to top up Paveway IV stocks is in the works.

"I can confirm that there are discussions over the replenishment of Paveway IV stocks," an MoD spokeswoman said.

Richard Daniel, the Raytheon UK CEO, told Defense News that a new order for the 500-pound-class Paveway IV is one of the potential business wins this year.

"We are certainly talking to the RAF about what their requirements are. We never comment on operations but with everything going on the British will need more and more of these weapons," Daniel said.

Nobody is willing to talk about the size of any deal for the moment.

Previously, the government placed several Paveway IV orders in the aftermath of the NATO air campaign in Libya in 2011, the largest of which was worth around £60 million (US $89.3 million).

Raytheon UK has also exported Paveway IV to the Royal Saudi Air Force where it is deployed on Tornado and Typhoon aircraft and being used against the Islamic State.

Eight RAF Tornado jets operating out of the British base at Akrotiri, Cyprus, carry the weapon along with the dual-mode Brimstone missile to provide strike capabilities against IS targets in Iraq. British Reaper remotely piloted vehicles operating from a base in the Middle East use Lockheed Martin Hellfire missiles against IS.

The MoD spokeswoman declined to give a breakdown of the weapons used by the RAF in Iraq.

Briefing reporters at the IDEX show in Adu Dhabi in February, Defence Procurement Minister Philip Dunne didn't give any figures for strikes using the British-built precision bomb but did say the smaller Brimstone accounted for close to a third of all strikes at that time.

That figure is pretty much borne out by a check of the latest air strike commentary on the MoD website for the period between March 1 and April 2.

The figures point to a total of just over 40 missiles and bombs dropped during the period.

If the commentary is accurate, Paveway IV marginally topped the list of weapons fired last month followed closely by Hellfire and then Brimstone.

During the NATO campaign against the regime of Col. Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, some air forces faced heavy criticism as their air weapon stocks fell to dangerously low levels despite it being a relatively short campaign.

While the campaign against IS is less intensive than were the Libyan strikes, the commitment of Britain and other air forces remains more open-ended, making weapon replenishment orders a likely regular occurrence.

Doug Barrie, the senior air analyst at the International Institute of Strategic Studies think tank here, says replenishing weapon stockpiles goes beyond solving the short-term needs in the Middle East.

"The broader question is whether a number of European nations, the UK included, need to go back and revisit some of their assumptions about weapon stock levels," he said.

"During the Cold War there were significant war stocks ready to tap into because of the nature of the potential conflict they could have got involved in. At the end of the Cold War, though, people understandably looked at their stock levels and thought they could cut them significantly. One of the things thrown up by Libya and other campaigns is whether they have got those stock levels right. In some cases they probably haven't," said Barrie.

The IISS analyst said it wasn't just a case of looking at numbers of weapons but also "assumptions about how much time you might have to rebuild those stocks if required."

MBDA said an arrangement it had with the British government, known as the Portfolio Management Agreement, enabled the company to respond quickly to dual-mode Brimstone requirements.

"MBDA has demonstrated our Brimstone industrial surge capability to support previous operational needs [in Libya] and, due to the Portfolio Management Agreement, we are proactively able to flex to meet our customer's changing needs," said a company spokesman

The European missile maker said it was already supplying additional dual-mode Brimstone missiles for the RAF.

"MBDA is currently supplying dual-mode Brimstone missiles, as we periodically do, to ensure our customer's operational advantage with this unique weapon is sustained. It is not appropriate to elaborate on any details of quantities or timescales," the spokesman said.

The British arm of MBDA has secured several top-up orders for dual-mode Brimstone since it was purchased as an urgent operational requirement to meet RAF needs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some of those additional orders have been announced but others likely haven't.

MBDA doesn't start from scratch building the dual-seeker Brimstone variant but converts missiles from an earlier large MoD order for less capable missiles.

Even so, the conversion takes between six and nine months, according to then-Defence Procurement Minister Peter Luff, announcing an order for 150 weapons in 2011.

The missile maker is currently in production with an improved Brimstone 2 version of the weapon expected to be available at the end of this year.

The MoD spokeswoman said there were no talks underway with the US at the moment for a further buy of Lockheed Martin's Hellfire missile.

Barrie reckons the MoD "might be loath to buy too many more Hellfires because they will soon have the option to switch to Brimstone 2."

MBDA revealed last month it was studying the use of Brimstone 2 on helicopters. The company tested the man-in-the-loop weapon on a Reaper last year in a series of trials conducted in the US.

The British Army currently use Hellfire on their Apache attack helicopters.

UK National Audit Office Describes Eurofighter Typhoon As One Of The Worse Aircraft In Terms Of Value For Money


http://www.nao.org.uk/report/management-of-the-typhoon-project/

Maybe Royal Air Force or Royal Navy away from Defence branches in United Kingdom.

About 3-4-5 year forward.

Around year 2020.

"As part of its Airseeker Programme, the second signals intelligence aircraft has been delivered to the RAF, seven months early, the MOD has announced. The specialist surveillance aircraft was handed over today at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk and will be deployable on operations within a matter of weeks. Since delivery of the first aircraft last year, over 60 improvements have been incorporated into the second aeroplane ranging from upgrades to the aircraft’s mission systems to engine improvements providing increased fuel efficiency and durability.

The first Airseeker commenced operations in July 2014 and is currently employed alongside other RAF units in the fight against ISIL supporting operations in Iraq and Syria. In due course, it will undergo an upgrade programme to bring the aircraft in line with the improvements made on the second aircraft." Source: http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/archive/airseeker-aircraft-04092015

George1 wrote:RAF Numbers

Where is Grob G115/Tutor, i thought they have signifiant amount of those. I always smile on that one since Grob in my language literally means grave, wouldnt be flying in one of those for sure.

"In approximately 30 minutes, Vulcan XH558 will take-off for her final flight." - Basically last airworthy Avro Vulcan bomber, but with civilian numbers.

They gave only 30 min notice so people do not gather in huge numbers to affect airport operations.



Live stream (was) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcKqkq27ffk

Source: https://twitter.com/XH558 (official twitter profile actually)

Few shots:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/6756795/UK-uses-borrowed-French-spy-plane-to-search-for-Russian-sub.html

RAF chiefs have been forced to borrow a French spy plane to hunt a Russian submarine hiding off the coast of Britain.

The Atlantique II long-range sea plane flew into RAF Lossiemouth two weeks ago.

Pinto wrote:http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/6756795/UK-uses-borrowed-French-spy-plane-to-search-for-Russian-sub.html

RAF chiefs have been forced to borrow a French spy plane to hunt a Russian submarine hiding off the coast of Britain.

The Atlantique II long-range sea plane flew into RAF Lossiemouth two weeks ago.

But did they manage to find russian sub ? How do they know it was there in first place if they don't even posses the plane to search for it .

max steel wrote:

Pinto wrote:http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/6756795/UK-uses-borrowed-French-spy-plane-to-search-for-Russian-sub.html

RAF chiefs have been forced to borrow a French spy plane to hunt a Russian submarine hiding off the coast of Britain.

The Atlantique II long-range sea plane flew into RAF Lossiemouth two weeks ago.

But did they manage to find russian sub ? How to they know it was there in first place if they don't even posses the plane to search for it .

Probably they know that sub is there in sea but no able to pin pint its location

now we know the reason why they played this fear porn to scare sheeple.U.K. To Buy 138 F-35s, Nine P-8 Poseidons


Britain Searches for 'Russian Submarine' as the country's navy calls for budget increase




During one of the submarine crisis in Sweden, in the 80ies, the swedish navy had managed to corner one sub after damaging it, and basically several ships and asw helicopters were ready to sink it with torpedoes. The military awaited only the orders from politicians. Although the sub identity was unknown, and the military thought it was soviet, the politicians ordered to let it escape, to the dismay of the navy. After the sub went away, an inspection of the waters in which it was found pieces of equipment and oil slicks which were manufactured in the US.

"Boeing has delivered its 14th Mk6 Chinook, completing the United Kingdom’s most recent order and growing the RAF Chinook fleet to 60 aircraft. The order completion coincided with the 35th anniversary of Chinook operations for the U.K. “Since they were introduced into service in 1980, our Chinook fleet has played an integral supporting role for British forces and have been deployed on an almost continuous basis since,” said Royal Air Force Air Vice-Marshal Julian Young, director of Helicopters in the United Kingdom’s Defence Equipment & Support organization. “These new Mark-6 helicopters will significantly enhance our existing heavy-lift helicopter and Special Forces capability. Our overall fleet of 60 Chinooks will support our frontline troops in current and future operations for decades to come.”

The RAF has operated Chinooks in every major NATO engagement since 1980 and on virtually every continent. The service uses its Chinooks to perform troop transport, air assault and medical evacuation missions. In addition, the RAF and U.K. Ministry of Defence Equipment and Support have worked closely with Boeing to implement performance-based logistics initiatives to increase the readiness of Britain’s Chinook fleet. The Mk6 Chinook has a new, machined monolithic airframe, U.K.-specific avionics, rescue hoist and interoperable communication and navigation equipment.



“As our company approaches its centennial, milestones such as this one demonstrate the significance of Boeing’s long and close partnership with the United Kingdom,” said Steve Parker, vice president, Cargo Helicopters and Boeing H-47 Chinook program manager. “The new Mk6 Chinooks offer the Royal Air Force a modern, capable asset for meeting its mission requirements today and well into the future.”

Source: http://defence-blog.com/news/boeing-delivery-of-14th-new-build-mk6-chinook-completes-current-orders-for-the-united-kingdom.html