Loke, that is SPEARIII. Combine that with the fruits of the Bright Adder initiative and the UK has plenty to talk to Belgium about when it is trying to sell Typhoon.

Thanks; yes the spear 3 looks very potent, an Bright Adder looks very promising. However if Belgium will only consider what is operational today (or very close to being operational) then I suspect Bright Adder may not help the Typhoon in Belgium. Bright Adder looks like technology demonstrator at this stage!?

I don’t think SEAD necessitates an F-35 since the F-4’s were doing it for decades prior to the F-16 taking over. It’s also not just a US thing since other nations have SEAD specific weapons.

SEAD can be done without F-35 however Belgium put restrictions on the scenarios, like only 4-ship and no extra assets allowed. This makes it hard in particular for Typhoon and the SH.

The Rafale F4.2 (with built-in GaN jammers) is probably the best alternative to the F-35 in particular given the constraints they put on mission planning.

If you want to do such a mission with e.g. the Typhoon you would probably need many more Typhoons, and equip some of them with stand-off weapons. You may also have to factor in significant attrition rates which again would mean more Typhoons.

The point is, you would plan the whole thing differently depending on whether you use Typhoons or F-35, and this would have an impact on the types and number of A/C needed. However this is not allowed due to the constraints imposed by the scenario.

Maybe, maybe not. Either way, point is SEAD/DEAD is not like the EW mission where its actually unreasonable to pit them against something like the Growler. All the aircraft in the running are capable of DEAD tasks and can be evaluated on it, for better or worse. The F-16CJ, for example, are a little long in the tooth and may not score very highly in an evaluation but still nobody would say that they’re not SEAD capable aircraft.

You are mixing things here.

They can do SEAD/DEAD, however they may not be able to successfully complete some of the more demanding SEAD/DEAD missions out there. The Belgian scenario seems quite demanding to me, and I strongly doubt a 4-ship of Typhoons will be able to produce an acceptable success rate for such a scenario. This is not Libya.

Also, while the Eurocanards don’t have any ARMs integrated, they as well as the F-35 Blk3 are capable of performing DEAD with other standoff weapons (Blk 3F: JSOW, SDB I; Blk 4: JSM, SDB II).

Have another look at the outcome of the Danish eval — the Typhoon (and SH) scored very poorly on the SEAD/DEAD mission.

The F-35 did very well. It scored bigly (as some would have said).

What is COMANO? And what was tested?

Which requirements?

I don’t remember any of the details, but there was a document published that outlined some scenarios (various missions). As far as I recall some of those missions had SEAD/DEAD components, and in general 4-ships were to be used with no extra support.

I don’t have time to dig out the document right now, it was made available when the competition started. I assume it’s still available.

Expect an outcome similar to in Denmark: The Typhoon should be able to perform the “simpler” missions, however for the more demanding it will not meet requirements.

There are other advantages of the F-35, including that most other NATO countries will fly the F-35 in the future, and that the F-35 has much larger growth potential.

Add to this that the Typhoon will be more expensive than the F-35, and you may wonder why Belgium would choose the Typhoon over the F-35. Only massive “other” benefits could change the outcome, and presumably that’s why France is trying to do this outside of the “regular” competition.

The Rafale would probably also be the 4.5 gen a/c that would be closest to meeting the Belgium technical requirements — the F4 with improved sensors, improved sensor fusion and improved EW capabilities look quite formidable (but still no 5. gen though, and also more expensive than the F-35).

Defesanet with an interview on Gripen E/F:

http://www.defesanet.com.br/en/e_gripen_br/noticia/27917/Interview-MIKAEL-FRANZEN—Head-of-business-unit-Gripen-Brazil-at-Business-Area-Aeronautics-at-SAAB/