-Britain said on May 24 it has not yet decided whether to deploy attack helicopters in Libya, contradicting NATO ally France which announced that both countries were ready to send choppers.

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=6605152&c=MID&s=AIR

As of today: ‘Currently 656 Squadron, 4 Regiment Army Air Corps, is deployed onboard HMS Ocean in the Mediterranean.’

Main point of the article: The British Army’s Apache attack helicopter has clocked up a landmark 100,000 flying hours, a third of which have been flown on operations in Afghanistan.

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/EquipmentAndLogistics/ApacheClocksUp100000FlyingHours.htm

So, looks like we’re going to see British Apaches operating over Libya any time now.

@Mildave, no offence but you might want to look more into a lot things more often…

As for what missile for the Typhoon, India wouldn’t be any worse off if they selected ASRAAM or IRS-T, the weapons systems already support these two missiles and there’ll be little sense going through the effort and cost of integrating another missile. They’ll already have one hell of a combination with one of the former and Meteor onboard.

Excellent, thank you, Scorpion82. Hopefully some more pictures will come out soon.

Saw this site not to long ago, but missed that there are a lot of pdfs on that side. Some of them contain nice images, albeit I understand no word. I expect nothing new to be included however.

Indeed, very nice images on there. I knew that BAE Systems were/are very keen to propose the Typhoon to Japan but I never knew they put something like this up on their site, its not like them to do something like that is it? Obviously they seem to think that things are looking good for Typhoon in Japan, maybe even more so now that Japan may drop the F-35, maybe theres something new about that already mentioned on that page but unfortunately by Japanese is as good as yours.

What “other” exercises? That’s actually a Luftwaffe Eurofighter from JG 74, the shot was taken at Albacete Spain in the current TLP course.;) The aircraft left Neuburg without stars thus you can expect that this Typhoon scored some 12 simulated kills during the TLP at the time that photograph was made. I think I already posted this picture in the Typhoon thread where it belongs too, as this is the Libyan thread.;)

Hence why I typed in a question mark. 😉 I must admit I don’t follow the Luftwaffe’s journies for a couple of reasons, being they very rarely publish anything and even when they do its in German. 😀

Very nice image btw, thanks.

What other aircraft took part in this TLC course? I’m thinking Russian aircraft at least with the red stars on the Typhoon, but surely not I’m also thinking…Anyway it’s be interesting to what other aircraft took part. Thanks in advance. 🙂

I would’ve thought the west were the first with Thrust Vectoring on a flying aircraft, i.e. Brits with th Harrier Jump Jet, although of course used in slightly different ways, but you know. I see what you mean though.

As far as maneuverability/supersonic performance is concerned, the boffins at Eurofighter GmbH seen this to be an area of great importance and went for a design in its airframe giving it the capabilities to operate at – and high supersonic speeds. If you look into it its a rather clever design, a lot of people over look this with the Typhoon. Compared to the Russian types in service today it ought to be more than a match for them and there really isn’t many other aircraft in the world that can do this type of ACM, other(s) being what, F-22, PAK-FA & J-20 probably will be able to too? It’s a canny ability to have, certainly worth going through the effort to produce one that can.

Whats this really all about then: http://www.baesystems.com/japan Just came across it & its the first time I’ve seen of it, how long has this been up on the BAE Systems website? Obviously BAE Systems are confident and fancy their chances in Japan.

No problem. Kev is Mr Coningsby!

RAF Coningsby is busy at the moment with air to ground training. 29 Squadron Typhoon T.3 returning to Coningsby on Thursday 19th May after dropping one inert Paveway of four carried. The same Typhoon was noted in the afternoon taking off with the three Paveways.

TJ

Thanks once again, TEEJ, you’re a bit of a gold mine. 🙂

Cool image. Interesting – so I’m presuming more RAF Typhoon pilots are being trained for A/G for Libya, and for in general of course? With this Typhoon T3 carrying four inert Paveways in the UK, we could probably see FGR4s carrying four live Paveways over Libya, if needed. I’m not 100% sure if they recently have carried that many.

Wondering how trials are coming along with the Paveway IVs?

If its true then Japans decision rests solely on its political aspect. The Typhoon and Rafale has ben judged ahead of the F-18 in the Indian Competition evaluation (Which has been IMHO fair), so The Typhoon with all else being equal should win, But Japan would have to do something that is almost unthinkable…. Buy a non US aircraft!! This would send shockwaves through the aircraft procurement world.

If they want an all out right top notch multi-role fighter then the Typhoon is the way to go, as I’ve always thought and mentioned numerous times during the MMRCA discussions, the F/A-18 is getting long in the tooth, very little else to be done as far as upgrade and growth potential is concerned, & performance wise – far from the Typhoon, the Typhoon has a far more advance airframe. (*Expecting Scooter to come along and attempt to prove the F/A-18 is superior*). So in the real world the Typhoon is the better choice and better suited for Japan, but this being Japan, they’re very much US influenced and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they go for the F/A-18.

Then again, maybe the Typhoon does have a chance for a few orders for Japan, its not often they show an interest in non-US types so something must be going through their minds, kind of the same for Eurofighter GmbH, if they know that theres no chance of sales then they wouldn’t waste their time and resources to propose the Typhoon, like they didn’t in Norway. They knew perfectly well Norway would go for a US type no matter how good or bad it was so Eurofighter GmbH didn’t bother wasting their effort on proposing their fighter that was never going to be purchased anyway. I’ve noticed they’re quite vocal on this kind of thing.

So hopefully, Japan will look at the Indian competition and take a few notes and realise for themselves going for a US type isn’t always the best way to go.

I had a little chit-chat with a chap at Eurofighter via email discussing a “few things” (talk about getting blood from a stone), managed to get a bit of an idea of what will be featured in the next issue of Eurofighter World, Japan was mentioned and could feature a piece as “things were looking good”. But as I say, getting blood from a stone.

Have to wait and see.

I’m wondering if the test conformal tanks are being manufactured as we speak?….

Cheers

They’ve had many trials done on scaled models in wind tunnels over the years and at least had 1.1 scale CFTs’ on full 1.1 Typhoons, although display models but neverless, full sized ones, Typhoon 2020 variants are being proposed to Turkey, UAE, Oman and the same variant possibly to Qatar too, one of the features associated with this configuration is the CFTs’, so, they possibly are being manufactured as we speak and if not yet then certainly almost to be so in the not too distant future.

Well with £39 million more…

Yeah, and? Do you want it to be done for free or something? Look a little closer and you’ll find that these systems are not the product(s) of Eurofighter GmbHs’ but that of BAE Systems and for the RAF’s Typhoons.

People moan about the Typhoon not getting these kind of upgrades then presume its because its “horrendously expensive”, then when it does, they moan it costs money. Well, show me an aircraft that has upgrades and is free to integrate them. No pleasing some people… :rolleyes: