Papa Lima

Somebody is doing a Swedish Bloodhound site, Check this out http://www.skogsborg.se/rb68.html.

Missile video is a Mk 2 MET round fired at Woomera in 1963-65 by 17 Joint Service Trials Unit. Still shots of a launch are a RB-68 firing from Vidsel.

Grovel Mode Activated.

Could somebody from Sweden please, please, please do a translation into English as this looks like it’s got all of the information that I’ve been searching for about the Swedish RB-68 force. (Also looks like some of the Swedish missiles were green as well from some of the photos).

http://www.bhmk2.net/index.htm

is a link to the Bloodhound missile web site, but it is incomplete. However the title photo shows the darker green of the launcher. I think the launcher I photographed at Linköping has faded to a lighter green – Swedish sunshine is very strong, even though we only get it for a month or two!
Although it is a Swedish missile on the launcher, as far as I remember the black and white colour scheme was the same in the UK. Some RAF Squadrons put their crests on the missiles, I believe, although I personally never saw one with that embellishment.
At Aberporth we were shooting them into Cardigan Bay, so they were not given any fancy paintwork!

Every missile that left the factory at Cardiff was white, the RAF started to paint them NATO IR Suppressing Green in the early to mid 1970’s when they were based in Germany (The 112 Sqn rounds in Cyprus remained white until the Sqn disbanded in 1975/6 and reformed as 85 Sqn at West Raynham). The launchers were originally Gloss Dark Green. As far as the Swedish armed forces involvment with Bloodhound, the Swedish Air Force were the only air arm beside the RAF to operate both marks of Bloodhound. The Swedish armed forces (Air Force / Army) procured 13 Bloodhound Mk 1 missiles under the designation of RB-365. The Army had a regiment (LV3) at Norrtalje some 40 miles north of Stockholm a limited fire unit (8 Launchers, one full Launch Control Post and two Type 83 Pluse TIR, along with a missile workshop (a full RAF Fire Unit had 16 Launchers). While the Air force had a minor fire unit (one half of an LCP, one Radar and one launcher) and a prototype of an air defence centre (SOC) at wing F2 at Hagernas some 10 miles north of Stockholm. There were digital data links between the two sites and primary data from the Swedish STRIL 60-system’s long range radar (Type 80) and nodding height finders. The total equipment procured from BAC was

Missiles 12 – LV3, 1 – F2
Launchers 8 – LV3 1 – F2
LCP 1 – LV3 ½ – F2
TIR Sting Ray 2 – LV3 1 – F2
Handling equipment including fuelling area and explosives area for LV3
Missile Workshop 1 – LV3
Training in the UK
Documentation
Spares

Had the system been fully operational the designation would have been RB-65, the 3 prefix meant the system was for trials use (though the LV3 system could have been used had there have been a war).

The system was procured to get the Swedish Armed forces experience with a in-service SAM system, leading to the procurement of one of the newer generation of SAMs under development at the time. The Air Force went for Bloodhound 2 (RB 68), the Army went for the US Hawk (RB 67).

The RB-65 was used from between 1966 and the mid 1970’s. The kit procured were 116 missiles, 48 launchers, 12 T86 TIR’s and LCPs. These made up 12 deployable Missile Sections (one T86 CW TIR, one LCP and four launchers) that were operated out of 5 locations in Sweden (these being F8 Wing (Barkarby) with 4 Missile Sections and the rest at F10 Wing (Ängelholm), F12 Wing (Kalmar), F13 Wing (Norrköping) and F17 (Blekinge) Wing (Ronneby) with 2 Missile Sections each. At time of war these sections would have deployed to pre-prepared sites dotted around Sweden, The system was phased out in the mid 1970’s due to budget cuts and the majority of the Missiles and Radars were sold back to the British (The Type 86 radars being used to replace the type 87’s of 85 Sqn at West Raynham, North Coates and Bawdsey). Swedish Bloodhound 2s were fired on the test range at Vidsel. I’m not sure of how many rounds were fired (one for certain and possibly as many as ten).

I’ve got some pictures of the Swedish Bloodhounds in service somewhere and some with RAF Rounds with Sqn markings (Both Mk 1’s and Mk 2’s). I’ll post them when I’ve dug them out.

Swedish Rb-68 Unit badge from F10 Wing below

Edit – Swedish Rb-365s. Big missile shot – Rb-365 at LV3. Missile on Trailer F-2 Wing’s single Rb-365 Missile. last shot – 8 launchers of LV3.

I know this is not informed journalism but is there any truth in the second from last paragragh in the attached BBC article re the Typhoons performance against the F22 ?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1818077.stm

Anyone seen anything to back up such a sweeping statement ? :confused:

Has the Typhoon been to the States Yet? :confused: I Don’t think so 😉 . Has the Raptor been to Europe Yet :confused: . I Don’t think so 😉 . So how could they have played against each other :confused: . I’d say the answer to that one is they haven’t 😉 .

The simple fact is that it’s not a newsworthy story in comparison with your example of Richard Noble’s ‘Thrust SSC’ project.

British Land Speed record, first official supersonic record, proven organisation with history of success (Thrust II) behind it, good potential exposure across the world for sponsors….

vs

Immenent failure of return-to-flight of a project involving an aircraft that isn’t Concorde or a Spitfire (the only recognisable aircraft names to the majority of the non-airshow-going public).

I’m sure that many people are doing all that they can to get publicity, the simple fact is that it isn’t newsworthy enough in the eyes of the majority of the national media. Added to the fact that there must be a certain ‘we’ve heard it all before’ wearines from many areas of the media, due to the ‘give us the money or we’ll scrap it’ stance very publicly adopted by the project management since day one.

That’s the reason that I gave Mr Noble a Cheque for £100 at Siverstone in 1995 and I will not be pledging any money for this project.

I think not!

I would rephrase that to ‘In their dreams’. This project will fail due to the old adage if you want to make a million on the private air show circuit, start with 3 million and know when to quit. Though I would love to see the Vulcan fly again (Having been at Swinderby while the Vulcan was still operational at Waddington (abet as a tanker), there is no way that the Vulcan people are going to make the money required to finish the rebuild, let alone fly the thing.

FOD, I presume. Anyone know 1) how much an EJ200 costs & 2) whether any parts would be recoverable after having half a runway pass through one?

Oh Yes, Photos the incident were posted on a number of forums inculding this one. (Photos shouldn’t have been posted as they were Crown Copyright (taken by RAF Photographers), somebody put it on the RAF Intranet and they got posted from there.)

It’ll be interesting to see the details, when they emerge. Timescales, equipment fit (will this hasten CAESAR development? CFTs?), weapons. Any opinions, just to keep the pot boiling?

It will be interesting to see how this will effect the RAF production run, The Jaguars will not be extended from what I’ve heard from contacts at Coningsby (there are apparently enough slots to keep the Jag jocks busy if the stand up of 11 Squadron with the Typhoon is delayed).

I’m on that stretch every morning (Wangford Fen > Eriswell) – what do you drive?

Moggy

1.6 Escort (However I only use that route when the A11 through Thetford Forest is jammed out (then cut back on the Brandon Thetford road), which seems to be every time I use it (Which is mainly on Fridays and Sundays evenings)). Of course the main gate at Lakenheath has traffic lights on the 1065, which where never there in the 1980’s when I used that road to get up to West Raynham.