“Inane” not “insane”

Thanks for the correction. So, “Inane” meaning; ‘Silly, foolish, stupid’ etc. Well no, one will have to be “inane” to make such a claim.

The “alleged” statement was supposedly made by a RAAF pilot on exchange with the RAF. As the RAAF are still working towards operational capability with the Supers, it’s unlikely any such RAAF pilot would have operational up close and hands on knowledge of the F-18Fs, or indeed what the RAAF was actually trying to get out of Bersama Shield: air to ground, maritime strike, something less such as systems familiarization in a complex environment, or tactics development.

Any pilot from any air force that are selected for exchange tend to be quite remarkable in their trade of background. The RAAF pilot we speak of could have easily been on exchange in the past with the US and possibly with other air forces. Theres no doubt about it that he knows a significant amount of various variants of -18s, knows the aircrafts systems that he usually operates like the back of his hand and has quite an understanding of further developments. During his exchange with the RAF he would’ve been tought and shown the way around the Typhoon and likely given a brief on some systems already in development. Maybe this was enough to make him think which would he’d rather go to war in. Whatever it was, he made his mind up.

Surely the aircraft as they are today must be the benchmark? In five years time the Eurofighter may have more weapons and systems integrated, but the Supers will too eg new AMRAAM variants, JASSM-ER, and long range IRST.

And Typhoon will have Meteor, Pilum – latter for the Luftwaffe but no doubt the RAF will show a lot of interest in this, too.

And in five years time the RAAFs classics will have started to be replaced by the F-35.

Rather optimistic…

I’d hope that the Typhoon is better in air to air than the classics Hornets; they are multirole aircraft from the 1970’s in the last few years of their service lives after all.

Don’t worry, they are as the RAAF found out in Malaysia. 😉

I wouldn’t write off the F-18Fs though. With AIM-120 models becoming longer ranged and the APG-79 maturing, technology is pushing in a direction that suits it’s style of air to air ie strike first from longer distances, taking advantage of its use of LO techologies.

Weapons, radars, various sub-systems etc are just a few things that make up an overall package of a fighter. You can add bigger boosters to the AIM-120 models to give them longer ranges but that could be pointless if you can’t improve it’s NEZ at the end; enter Meteor with it’s ramjet. The APG-79 might be maturing but I’d be quite iffy on comparing it to the Captor-E’s/Repositioner, 220 – desgrees WFoR and 1,400 TR modules.

But as I say; these are just a few things taken into account. Amosnt many other things, you need a platform that’s very, very capable in A/A, and the F/A-18 isn’t exactly well know for it.

And have there been many (any) publicized, analyzed encounters between block 2 Supers armed for air to air, backed up by AEW ( the likely operational scenario) and the Eurofighter?

Not that I know of.

***

Wrt Japan. Apparantly the desicion for the F-X fighter has been postponed for…(Tension)…four days. Now I’ve heard “competitions” to be postponed for weeks, months and years, but for four days? Give us a break…

But the “alleged” statement is pretty inane, isn’t it? What if the required mission was long range maritime strike? An upgraded classic Hornet loaded with AGM-84s is still a pretty formidable foe. Can you really say the Eurofighter would be better in that role? And if the mission is long range strike against a fixed land target, don’t forget that the RAAF have integrated the JASSM with the classics. JASSM is a more stealthy missile than Storm Shadow, helping to lower the chance of you having to repeat the mission at a latter date.

And for strike missions generally, can you really write off the F-18F? With its APG-79 giving its two man crew simultaneous air and ground modes, how would it compare to the Typhoon with its old tech radar and single man crew? Then we could talk about the Rhino’s much deeper and coherent use of low observable technologies…

So, the RAF pilot I mentioned earlier, the one that has been to war in both the Harrier and F-16, and stated he’d rather go to war in the Typhoon anyday of the week, is his statement insane, too?

Are you talking about a Typhoon of today or a Typhoon with further weapons integrated? If it’s the latter, then yes, give me the Tiffy. Everytime.

By the sounds of things, him and his F/A-18 colleagues were easy prey for the RAF Typhoons during their time in Malaysia. So no surprise he stated what he did. It’s quite possible he was talking about going to war in terms of A/A, as their deployment in Malaysia was heavily weighted towards A/A as far as I’m aware.

Anyone preffering to go to war in A/A against the Typhoon (even with Captor-M) in an F/A-18, “Super” or not, might want to spend a little extra time in the pre-flight medical centre for an head examination.

@JSR,

“Rafale is not expensive than EF despite Rafale being Naval, Multirole (It actuall lifts more with bigger fuel tanks) and electronic scanning radar. You cannot prove it otherwise.”

Only less than 5% cheaper, which really isn’t that much. You part you didn’t gasp is which Tranche of the Typhoon is in question here. The Rafale priced a few weeks ago is more or less the same one thats in service today, albeit I’m sure it’s AESA radar and quite possibly a few other software upgrades etc were included in the it’s costs too, and not to mention it’s pretty much fully multi-role capable anyway. Theres very little else that could be added.

The Typhoon’s price on the other hand, isn’t for the one thats in operational service today. Its for Tranche 3 Typhoons which are very different beasts to the Tranche 2s, although they have a lot in common in terms of systems. Included in the Tranche 3s for India are the likes of Captor-E, enhanced defence, communication and weapons systems of which the latter supports the likes of Storm Shadow, Taurus, series of Paveways, Meteor, Brimstone, glide-bombs, anti-ship missiles so on and so forth, as well as a lot of other sub systems enhancements already undertaken in recent years/months which seperates the Typhoon of today and the Typhoon of 2008. Also, as far as I’m aware the price includes the HEA.

As the Typhoon is only less than 5% more expensive; the likes of a more powerful Captor-E/Repositioner and the HEA (which the Rafale doesn’t have) alone makes up for that small difference in price, doesn’t it not?

British defence firm BAE Systems has unveiled the “Hush House”: a soundproof room that’s able to muffle the noise of Eurofighter Typhoon’s two Eurojet EJ200 turbojet engines, at full thrust.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-12/13/bae-hush-house

Cool! I wonder if they’ll let me take my Mesa Boogie/Marshall or Deizel/Orange guitar rigs in there? They might say yes! :diablo:

Some more problems still to be solved.

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/special-dod-review-recommends-curtailing-early-f-35-production-365933/

I wonder if Japan have been informed about these problems…And at (apparantly) $8 billion with only 20% content…Well, I reckon even they think it’s not that attractive.

If Japan are really going to make a decision this week, Friday, and what them by the time frame they want. The F-35 is way too much of a high risk IMO.

Put an order in for Typhoons this week, they’ll be ready in time and, I believe it’s safe to say, be without any technical problems, have a huge boost for their own aerospace industry and create jobs for themselves. Then in a few years time, put an order in for some F-35s (when it’s looking more promising) to compliment their Typhoons – like they would in British, Italian and Spanish service.

Just my two pennies worth.

Could this have had something to do with offsets for the Typhoon?

HAL and Rolls Royce to build joint manufacturing facility for Aero Engines

“The production facility will produce components, for the technologically advanced Trent family of civil aero engines, as well as for a number of marine and energy gas turbines,” HAL said in a statement today. Production is projected to start next year.

The facility will integrate the latest techniques of Rolls-Royce and “create job opportunities for highly skilled technicians and engineers in India,” the statement says.

To quote Enzo Casolini, CEO of Eurofghter GmbH: “The history of our partner companies in working with customer nations is the best testimony of what we can promise. Moreover, for a customer industry working with Eurofighter’s four partner companies, this means opening the doors to a potential collaboration with a complex set of industries that total more than 120 billion dollars revenue and that have a product range that varies from the smallest UAV’s to the world’s largest passenger aircraft as well as from satellites to submarines.”

Could this have had something to do with offsets for the Typhoon?

Could may well be.

Some bright spark over on Military Photos suggested the US, some how, find the downed drone and drop a JDAM on it, thus preventing the evil Iranians, Chinese a Russian boffins gaining whatever there was or is to gain from the crash site…Nice one… :rolleyes:

Cheers, Tay for those pics. Very Christmasy…Urgh, Christmas…Getting near the time where one has to be friendly. :diablo:

Cool!. Hey, wait, what? I’ve done the google thing, got a source on this?

The HEA was due to be in frontline operational service a few weeks ago anyway. Jon confirmed over on starstreak it’s been so for several weeks now.

The Rafale can take off with full fuel + 9500 kg of payload from an aircraft carrier what more take off weight increase would you need seriously?

WRT drag, it can cruise at M0.9 at half throttle with a payload of 2x 2000L fuel tanks, 6 AASM and a few Mica missiles. Doesn’t seem too draggy to me.

I wasn’t questioning it’s take off weight or drag. I stated TVN could improve in those areas