Ironically, Europe, or the UK I should really say, did have a little project going called ‘FOAC’. Stealth, single engined, multi-role aircraft and it looked rather attractive in many reports and would compliment this other new, strange triangle shaped aircraft with funny little wing-lets apparantly called “canards” or something or another giving it super-agility at very high altitiudes above supersonic speeds & would later be named after a storm…But, sadly this FOAC project got canned and soon after the Amercans came along with “their” project called the JSF that is now running near half a $trillion and rising…

Nice…

It would have certainly been interesting if the British had more cash available & got other European countries to contribute in the FOAC programme. Ah well…

After all this carry on with the F-35, I think it would be very difficult if not impossible for the Americans to get any European countries to be part of such a programme in the future. They would almost just go for the next European fighter that would replace the three types that are in service now. But thats another story.

BAE Systems is expected to learn soon whether it is part of a consortium that has won the coveted £7.1billion order to supply the Indian air force with 126 Eurofighter Typhoon jets.

But victory in the fierce competition will not make any difference to its decision to make 3,000 redundancies in Britain.

A BAE spokesman said the redundancies would go ahead whatever the decision on the contract. This is partly because most of the Typhoons would be made in India.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2044654/BAE-Systems-axe-jobs-India-Eurofighter-Typhoon-bid-wins.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

In other words; the 3,000 jobs in the UK are of no concern because we (BAE Systems) would get a huge chunk out of the 20,000+ Indian jobs made possible by selecting the Typhoon anyway. And, Indian employees would be much cheaper to employ with just as good skills the UK force would have had.

Everyones a winner…Apart from the poor sods that’d lose their jobs in the UK.

If I might add the Tornado GR1B. This was the anti-shipping variant that replaced the Buccaneer and was based at RAF Lossiemouth & operated the Sea Eagle anti-ship missile. Although this variant still had a radar, it relied on Sea Eagle’s seeker to aquire surface ships. When the GR1s were updated to GR4s there was no need to have a GR4B due to the lack threats from the sea.

On a Typhoon note though, how will it be upgraded to remain relevant into this time frame? Is it weapons and systems given that no one really believes there will be an airframe redesign….

I’m one of those that doesn’t really believe the Typhoon will have an airframe re-design, theres really no need for it to have any, better than fine the way it is. The only things that would class as being a re-design is the CFTs – even still they’re just add-ons – TVNs, carrier variant, again not really much of a re-design, more of enhancments if you will. And these have been on the drawing boards from way back when.

I don’t believe we’ll ever come across such things as these so-called “Stealth Pods” what Boeing proposed to India for the F/A-18. To me I see that as a step back rather than an “improvment”. Why fit a pod to house A/A missiles when it’d be limited to say Mach 0.8 or whatever due to design when the missile itself can reach Mach 4+? Defeating the object a bit I think & Boeing can call it what they want, “Stealth”, well the aircraft…Ain’t. Flogging a donkey to a Grand National so to speak, poor thing. So stuff like that won’t be on any Typhoons I think.

Of course the Typhoon will have further weapons added as well as electronics etc. It really depends what a specific country needs, who knows if Russia might ever starts sending Russian Navy warships near the UK again then we might update a few to carry anti-shipping missiles, call it Typhoon FGR4B if you will, depending on the threats. Hard to say what it might have, I bet 20 years ago the Tornado didn’t know it’ll be operating with Storm Shadow & Brimstone today.

If I may go back to this news piece for a moment:

Tokyo, Japan. BAE Systems, with the full support of the UK Government, the Eurofighter partner companies and nations together with the Sumitomo Corporation, has today submitted a response to Japan’s requirement for a new fighter aircraft to the Japanese Ministry of Defence in Tokyo.

http://www.eurofighter.com/media/news0/news-detail/article/eurofighter-typhoon-ready-for-japan.html

Going from that it seems as though BAE Systems, Eurofighter GmbH & Co have a Japanese company on their side in the name of Sumitomo Corporation in support of the Typhoon bid. Which is a good thing.

My question is however; what can the Sumitomo Corporation bring to the bid to favour the Typhoon for Japan?

What would they do?

As much as I admire the optimism of the F-35 supporter, as I said before, I very much doubt it’d be in operational service anytime soon and again, the US & it’s F-35 “partners” are very unlikely to push a few orders aside for Japan. The US will not allow Japan to produce it which will affect their aerospace industry of which they want to boost and of course Japan will not have the freedom of source codes, upgrading, enhancing aircraft systems without the US sticking their noses in. And to add; you probably wouldn’t rely on it to perform air superiority would you, strike yes, the former, I wouldn’t. But thats not say I wouldn’t order it later in the future.

Concerning the Typhoon ‘vs’ F/A-18; what Spitfire9 said, well its a no brainer really. Why anyone would go for an F/A-18 over a Typhoon must be on something quite stong. Even if Japan does go for it it’d be for political reasons.

100 years old? Indredible! Congratulations to him/her! Hope you have a nice trip. We’re thinking about going further out in the sticks of Japan this time, we’re very much looking forward to going to Japan in general anyway. We were on about going over early December but it might have to be around the back end of January – early February, just with it being so close to Christmas & all. The plan was like last time, go to Dubai for a week or so then from there to Japan for just under 3 weeks then back to Blighty. But it might be just Dubai for December I think. My girlfriend is from there you see, so got to go see her family & all…even though shes a bit reluctant to. lol

Anyway, hopefully we’ll get more info after the press conference about the Typhoon.

BEIJING — Boeing is trumpeting industrial opportunities in its bid for Japan’s F-X combat aircraft requirement, a day before the country stops making fighters for the first time in 56 years.

Coincidentally or not, proposals for the F-X program were due on Sept. 26, while the last two of 94 Mitsubishi Heavy Industries F-2 strike fighters are scheduled to be completed on Sept. 27.

Boeing is offering the F/A-18E Super Hornet for Japan’s 42-aircraft requirement. The company points to but does not specify “the extensive technical design and manufacturing opportunities the Super Hornet would bring to many areas of Japanese industry.”

Manufacturing work is an advantage that Boeing and competitor Eurofighter have over the third company in the competition, Lockheed Martin, which is offering the F-35 Lightning. The F-35 could be assembled in Japan, but it is unlikely that many of its parts could be made there. Even assembly would demand a plant costing about $1 billion.

***

The Japanese requirement is, however, mainly aimed at filling the air-to-air mission, for which Eurofighter is offering its Typhoon.

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/asd/2011/09/27/07.xml&channel=defense

Is there any more info to read upon regarding Japan’s requirements for the F-X fighter?

Most other “sources” reporting the same story are “blaming Typhoon sales” and not actually looking deeper into the situation of what is the most likely situation, i.e. cuts over several sites across the UK. At least FlightGlobal are more informed of the real world.