RAF Tornado and Typhoon jets have been in action together with Army Apache attack helicopters as rebel forces in Libya clash with government troops.

There has been intense fighting around the rebel-held town of Misrata as rebels launched an offensive to push Gaddafi’s forces back from their positions.

Apaches were called in from HMS Ocean after a NATO surveillance vessel detected high speed inflatable boats about to attack the harbour.

Meanwhile Tornado and Typhoon ground attack aircraft conducted strikes against two of Gaddafi’s ammunition depots at Waddan and Al Qaryat Ash Sharqiyah, destroying nine underground storage bunkers.

http://bfbs.com/news/top-story/rebels-push-apaches-and-raf-fighters-strike-gaddafis-forces-48530.html

Eurofighter & its users very rarely publish anything about what they have achieved against other aircraft, last time they did was when a couple of Spanish Typhoons owned a bunch of USAF F-15s IIRC. The rest is a matter of finding a lucky snapshot of a Typhoon with, for example, a single Luftwaffe Typhoon with around 12 kills marked just below its cockpit or an Italian Typhoon with 5 kills painted on it. Theres no doubt that theres been other exercises where they’ve claimed a greater number of simulated kills but I get the impression that Eurofighter GmbH would rather boast their record where and when it matters, i.e. during a sales pitch for a potential buyer. Us ‘Minions’ don’t always need to know.

Like others have pointed out, myself included, show the real results and the Typhoon will have a greater number of kills in its favour. Showing an image of a Typhoon in ones HUD on a forum isn’t going to change any potential buyers mind.

The AH-64 costs more than $5,000 per flight hour to operate.

$5,000 per flight hour to operate?

According to Air Vice Marshal Greg Bagwell RAF, the Typhoon operating cost per flight hour is £4,000 as of December 2010. Thats around $6,500 US if I’m not mistaken, is it not?

Seems a lot for a rotary wing aircraft.

It’s pretty obvious. A missile dedicated to WVR fighting (i.e short range) will be more agile than the MICA in WVR. The MICA is supposed to be both, which is a compromise between BVR and WVR. I’m not saying that it is a bad missile, just that a dedicated weapon is better at what it does than something that is trying to be both.

Hence why they’re going to integrate Meteor in a fews years time.

Funny, I remember when back in around 2008 or 2009, maybe earlier, an RAF Torndao F3 got a kill against an RAF Typhoon & I believe it was a WVR gun fight. When mentioned, very little was talked about the situation…

News:

Eurofighter is preparing to provide unique insights into the Eurofighter Typhoon performance in the Libyan conflict at the Paris Air Show 2011. A special media briefing is being held to show how the Typhoon has been active in both air-to-ground and air-to-air roles.

A press release from Maialen Gutierrez, Eurofighter spokesperson has said that by Royal Air Force Typhoon Pilot Squadron Leader Rupert Joel would give the briefing.

http://www.defenseworld.net/go/defensenews.jsp?id=5724&h=Eurofighter%20insights%20into%20Typhoon%20multi-mission%20role%20in%20Libya%20at%20Paris%20Air%20Show%202011

Hopefully we’ll get some info on how they’re doing.

Oooops, I dropped it. :diablo:

Anyway…

Came across this:

Lt. Gen. Giuseppe Bernardis, Chief of Staff, Italian Air Force.

Q. Italy has focused on the air defense role of the Eurofighter Typhoon, instead of its multirole potential. Has Libya reinforced or weakened this view?

A. The Eurofighter is giving us good performance and reliability in support of attack forces, and this operation is the demonstration that we were right to hold back further developments and consolidate the aircraft’s air superiority capability. When this is consolidated, we can go forward. We think we should not skip areas of the development of the main role in favor of another role, leaving holes in the primary role. We need a sound air superiority fighter, and any change to obtain a secondary role has to be done after consolidating the first phase. We are involved with another platform – the JSF – which we consider more dedicated and more capable of the secondary role without overspending.

Q. The companies pushing the Eurofighter partners to develop an e-scan radar for the Typhoon announced last year they would self-fund development for a limited period, which has ended. What happens next?

A. We are still discussing this. I was one of the first to say e-scan radar is a must for Eurofighter, but you cannot ask me to scrap a state-of-the-art mechanically scanned radar that I am obliged to receive until 2016. You cannot ask me to throw away good equipment in order to receive better equipment, especially if we have financial constraints.

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=6723008&c=FEA&s=INT

@Scorpion82, is the December 2014 date the introduction for the initial 18 aircraft or for when they start to introduce the Indian built aircraft?

:
Firstly, more than 1000 kg of extra fuel gives the Rafale an undisputed advantage in range, and that is the right answer to your question.
Secondly, telling what’s important and what’s not as you see fit makes you a troll.

He was actually asking a question not stating his opinion or stating what he see’s fit. So to call one a troll is abit out of order!

A point I’d like to make about the Typhoon’s drop tanks. I believe Eurofighter could be introducing a bigger drop tank, I’ve noticed on a couple images that have been released recently showing Typhoons, although scaled models ones, with of what looks like bigger ones than whats currently carried on the Typhoon – they’re certainly a different shape, more “pointier” if you like. Anyway see what you think below:

Compared to:

As I say, Eurofighter could be introducing a bigger drop tank as far as we know & I wouldn’t be surprised if they did. Of course theres been no mention of this as of yet as well as the Meteor trials on the Typhoon in the UK, so all things possible.

Typhoon gets Brimstone, Stromshadow and Raptor (renamed Raptyph?) in the next 4 years.

The thing I’ve been wondering about concerning the Typhoon & the Raptor recce pod is, is where do you put it? I don’t believe it’d fit on the centre station and it’ll probably hamper the Raptor’s abilities if you put it on one of the wet stations, however you probably could have it one of those and have a centre drop tank & another under one of the wings but that might seem abit…odd.

My un-educated guess is the Typhoon will recieve a newer, smaller recce pod to fit on the centre station.

Edit:

I understand that the Litening III provides a recce & scanning capability. How good that is I do not know.