A Typhoon from 1(F) Squadron has fired a Meteor missile on an exercise in France with French Air Force Rafales.

The Typhoon jets deployed to Cazaux air base in western France near Bordeaux and flew with French Rafales in the Bay of Biscay where they successfully engaged a Banshee 80 aerial target.

“The Banshee 80 aerial target is a 3-metre-long jet powered flying target, which the RAF Typhoon was required to locate, track, and target. The target has twin jet engines, which enable it to fly at speeds of up to 180 metres per second, making it a realistic and challenging target. The Meteor Beyond Visual Range Air to Air Missile (BVRAAM) state-of-the-art complex weapon is manufactured by MBDA in the UK in collaboration with five other partner nations: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Sweden.

The missile is powered by a ramjet motor, which propels it until it hits its target. This gives it a long range and very large “no escape zone”.  It is guided by an active radar seeker, giving it the ability to engage a wide variety of air targets in all weather conditions. It is network-enabled, meaning pilots can operate the missile using third-party target data, allowing flexibility in tactics.”

A small team from 1(F) Squadron deployed to France to support the Typhoons there.

Engineer beneath the wing of a Typhoon in the hangar

The RAF also add that the exercise was also supported by a Voyager from RAF Brize Norton which provided air-to-air refuelling to extend the duration and the range of the Typhoon’s sortie.

George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison

86 COMMENTS

  1. It’s 403.2 miles a hour which ain’t that fast compared to today’s missile speeds could of been cought and shot down by a second world war spitfire.

    • That would be an idea, however if we were going for long range it would be best to use the Aster missile setup, as it was designed as an essentially ground launches system.
      More Sky Sabre with perhaps camm-mr (when built) would be good.

      Even better a few more Typhoon to stop the other missiles being launched in the first place!
      AA

  2. What about the sub-launcbed” low-level hyper-sonic ones that can travel from just outside Belgian territorial waters to London in under two minutes. Now there’s a target worthy of practice…. But UK Defence Forces have nothing to touch ’em. Oh dear !

  3. There are no RAF Typhoon aircraft left in operation. They were all destroyed like sparrows by a cat in Sunak’s top secret UK military attack on Russia from Estonia. They were useless SHIT, every fact and figure in the official specification document is a lie.

  4. Anglophobes take note: The exercise was in held by France in French airspace.
    The thought of the French using MPH is hilarious!
    So m/s is their definition of speed.

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