Kovy,

That’s surprisingly troll-like, for you.

1) Strafe may not always be a good idea. You may not wish to get that low, or to provide that much warning, or to risk collateral damage ‘in line’. Sometimes only an LGB will do.

2) Only the UK paid for austere air-to-ground (PWII/EPWII and Litening 3), thus only the RAF has air-to-ground capable Typhoons. We have just two frontline squadrons (plus a single Tornado F3 squadron) and a UK AD/Falklands commitment that requires five AD squadrons….. Oops!

So we don’t have enough Typhoons to support a meaningful deployment on the ground in Afghanistan (say eight aircraft).

You might think that four Typhoons would be more usefully deployed to Afghanistan than to the Falklands. Many might agree with you. But like it or not, the defence of the Falklands is viewed as important by HMG. (To me the answer to both of these problems was simple – I’d have kept the F3 (and Jag) in service until it could be directly replaced, squadron for squadron, by Typhoon).

3) There’s nothing raw and poor about the LDP capability on Typhoon.

4) 15 Rafales to Afghanistan? At once? Only if you count those on the carrier!

I applaud the French for sending small deployments of Rafales to Afghanistan. They weren’t militarily significant, and deploying more Mirage 2000s would have probably made more sense, and would have been a better use of logistics and infrastructure, and would have resulted in the availability of more self-designating assets in theatre, but it was a great PR ‘tick in the box’ and gives the Rafale a ‘combat proven’ label that Typhoon lacks. I think that the UK should have done the same, for exactly the same reasons. But I don’t kid myself that it would have proved much.

TMor,

Don’t you think that TooCool 12F is Fonk’s latest incarnation, then?

I just assumed it was him.

Arthuro,

You made a big deal about Rafale’s relevant capabilities for ‘today’s conflicts’. I was pointing out that actually Rafale falls short when it comes today’s scenarios, with no HMS, and with no ability to autonomously deliver laser-guided weapons.

Ironically, this is an area where the Typhoon that you run down at every opportunity is ahead of Rafale, though it lags Rafale when it comes to stand-off, anti-ship, recce and SEAD capability (it doesn’t have such a capability yet), and it lags even further when it comes to buddy refuelling, and nuclear deterrence (which were never planned).

And more seriously, neither Typhoon nor Rafale are as mature as they should be, nor as mature as their apologists make out.

Romun,

Good question.

“Those quoting this statistic are (soon) going to look mighty foolish.”

Dare/BlueWings/Thunder/Fonk/Sampaix/Test Engineer/Wingman

“well, let’s see.. on one side we have pilots who were there (and who most certainly have the thing recorded, and on the other side you (well known rafale-bashing poster) behind your computer screen… who would I believe?

definitely not you…”

Well let’s be accurate. On the one hand we have ONE named pilot who makes that claim.

On the other hand we have common sense, backed up by an explicit refutation from an unnamed industry source, and I have to say, the 7-1 tripe has been explained to me by pilots from four nations who were at ATLC – UK, US, Emirati and French.

Those quoting this statistic are going to look mighty foolish.

Snafu,

“Would you have an opinion as to why the Tiffie, with it’s self designation ability, has not yet been deployed to Afghan?”

I would!

1) Not enough of them to do the UK AD/Falklands job. Certainly not enough to do more than a ‘tick in the box’, ‘ooh look, we’ve deployed three Typhoons’ sort of media deployment.
2) They don’t meet the UK theatre entry standard. No PWIV, no Herrick.

I was not aware that Damocles had not been used by Mirage 2000 in Afghanistan, if indeed that is true. It has been used by Super Etendard. It’s clear that it isn’t Litening 3. It isn’t Sniper.

“Theatre entry standard” is a UK term. It’s indicative that a major air force no longer views PWII, EPWII or PW3 as being good enough.

The point is that without a good LDP and ROVER, you can’t do the kind of time sensitive targeting required in current operations, and often won’t have a capability against moving targets.

Michael Yon:

“The JTACs are happy. Air cover, since I have been in Sangin, is better than we could honestly hope for. Axle talked about strike aircraft; “The F-15E Strike Eagles are brilliant,” he said. The JTACs, if given a choice of the other fourteen types of piloted aircraft that come on station, seem to vote for F-15E Strike Eagles.
The F-15E package (weapons, electronics, and strike pilots) is particularly lethal for this fight. When strike aircraft come onto station, the pilots declare their weapons load. A typical F-15E declartion sounds like this: An American voice crackles over the radio, “Good morning. I’ve got 4 GBU-12s, 6 GBU-38s, 2 GBU-31s, and 1,000 x 20mm cannon.” [GBU-12: 500lb Laser Guided Bomb is the JTAC favorite here; GBU-38 is a 500lb JDAM and also very good; GBU-31 is a 2,000lb JDAM and too big for use in Sangin but there are many other fights in Afghanistan; 20mm cannon can destroy armored vehicles but bounce off the compound walls here.]
In total, the two F-15Es arrive with a dozen accurate bombs, a thousand rounds of 20mm, incredibly good optics, and a great downlink package so the JTACs can peer through F-15E crosshairs and coordinate with the pilot. Most importantly, the Strike Eagle pilots are specifically trained for this mission. Nobody on the ground complains about this package.
Whereas Strike Eagles are favored in Sangin, there are close runner-ups. B-1Bs are called “Bones” because B-One spells bone. Bones were made for nuclear war with the Soviets and for carrying hydrogen bombs, and so they don’t carry a lot of different tricks for small battles. B-1Bs do come with 12 GBU-38s and 8 GBU-31s, very good optics and Axle says the pilots are easy to talk onto targets. When a B-1B runs low on gas, refuelers can fly to us. One day, Axle could see Bones refueling directly overhead while continuing to track a target.
In all, about fourteen types of aircraft fly topcover, including American, Belgian, British, Dutch and French. JTACs here say the least desirable aircraft of those fourteen are the French M2000D. A package of two jets carries no cannon, no downlink and a total of only 4 GBU 12s. The optics aboard the aircraft are not good (so much for Damocles!), and the trail aircraft spots targets with binoculars like the Red Baron. Also, the French and British have problems understanding each other’s accents. The British who work with French forces refuse to say a bad word. They say the French are good and ready—which can be surprising because the Brits and the French like to slag each other—but the French aircraft simply are primitive in comparison to the American jets. An American unit in Zabul Province last year said that some French pilots probably saved them, or at least made a big difference, and so any words about primitive aircraft should be taken in light of respect for the pilots.
No mention is made of the Apache helicopters because Axle was talking about jets. The Apaches seem to do most of the heavy lifting—for every jet strike I must have seen 5-10 Apache strikes. Apaches are very effective. We are too far out for coverage from Kiowa Warriors. Predators are excellent but Reapers are especially welcome.”

That’s the advantage of being in charge.

If you don’t like the report, get it re-written.

The FAB’s preference was never going to be placed above that of the politicians’.