British Typhoon jets strike a rocket launcher in northwest Iraq.
According to a statement:
“On the evening of Sunday 21 April, a pair of Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s, flying as part of the long-standing global coalition, conducted a routine patrol over Syria and Iraq as part of Operation Shader.
Rockets were observed being launched in northwest Iraq against coalition forces. Acting rapidly in defence against this attack, our aircraft successfully employed a single Paveway IV, precision guided bomb to destroy the rocket launcher system.”
Launched in 2014, Operation Shader is the UK’s contribution to the global coalition against Daesh (ISIS), operating across Syria and Iraq.
The primary role of this mission is to support allied ground forces and conduct air strikes against identified terrorist targets. Since the commencement of Operation Shader, Typhoon jets have played an integral part in the UK’s efforts.
Over the years, these advanced multi-role combat aircraft have flown countless sorties, providing critical intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance data, as well as engaging hostile targets when necessary. British military aircraft spent a combined 16,255 flying hours against Daesh in Iraq and Syria over the last year.
Although only in the QRA role, when the Typoon T1’s are withdrawn from service next year. It will only stretch the Typoon fleet even further and the hours per airframe will only increase on the T2/T3’s, how on earth will they last long enough until Tempist is ready to take the baton?
Typhoon & Tempest Mark. We certainly need more Fighters, squadrons & pilots trained up.
AI is going to ensure there no shortage!
yeah course it is…
Thanks for not laughing at my dyslexia 🤭 I’ll use spell check next time 😁
Your thoughts are what counts.
Hi Mark. We have 4 T1 jets in the Falklands. And between 8-10 T1 jets on the 29 sqn OCU. 2 of these are used for the Typhoon display season. All 7 frontline units use T2/3 aircraft. £2.35billion is being spent on upgrading the T2/3 fleet. Hours wise, they will easily last well into the 2040s and well beyond. They are designed to be worked hard. And many op Shader sorties are actually very gentle on the airframe. To the point you can go into positive maintenance hours.
Will this still apply if T2/3 are diverted for use in the Falklands and on OCU?
T1s in the Falklands will stay until 2027. Then replaced with T2/3 aircraft. The OCU will also be T2/3 aircraft. The lose of T1 will not impact the frontline inthe way people think it will. The RAF would rather spend the money on enhancing Typhoon capability then keep T1 jets. And reduce the fleet within fleets engineering burden and cost.
Amazing knowledge. How the hell do you know all that, please?
Most of the info is open source. Just need to know where to find it. I’ve always had an interest in the RAF, but I joined the Fleet Air Arm. I served with Joint Force Harrier at RAF Cottesmore for 6+ years and also with Sea Harrier FA2.
Thank you for your service.
Cheers Barry 👍 Did 14 years total. Some guys who comment did far longer.
The Typhoon only has a 6,000 hour airframe life. By comparison the F-18 is 10,000 hours and the F-16 is 12,000 hours. The utilization rates are definitely higher than expected, but current leadership sees it as the next guys problem..
Robbing Peter to pay Paul, and calling it a cost savings.
F16 has an airframe lifespan of 8000 hours not 12000
F18 Has a lifespan of 6000 hours that the marines have extended to 10000 hours (probably by higher frequency structural checks)
It is not designed for 10000 though. They only did this due to delays getting the F35s
This shows that typhoon could conceivably also have it’s lifespan extended if needed.
The F-16 is absolutely a 12,000 hour airframe. The Super hornet is absolutely a 10,000 hour airframe.
Go look again, You are 100% incorrect.
Please show me the links then.
I have tried, I can’t get the links past mod approval. Google it. “F-16 12,000 hours” “Boeing F-18 10,000 hours”
I did Google it which is why I disagree with you.
We really do need a new tranche buy of typhoons..it makes sense in so many ways…both in fast jet numbers and our near term security as well keeping the industrial capabilities going in the UK ready for Tempest for our longer term security …if we allow the typhoon lines to shut down, getting the lines up and running for tempest will be massively more difficult, time consuming and expensive.
I couldn’t agree more, even an extra squadrons worth would help at the very least and try to get Germany on board for the Saudi and possibly Turkish sale
The loss of typhoon T1’s will obviously have a negative impact on our military capability. With Argentina procurement of used but upgraded F16’s the RAF will need to keep it’s flight of Typhoons at Mount Pleasant. After the withdrawal of Typhoon T1’s our front line military fighter aircraft will shrink to barely 100 jets. Now if you factor in aircraft that are unserviceable, undergoing schedules and unscheduled maintenance and upgrades, the actual numbers available are considerable less. It has been documented that our Typhoon jets are the busiest in Europe, suggesting that aircraft lifespans will diminish as a result. We all know that our Typhoons are based in Cyprus from where regular patrols are performed over Syria and Iraq as well as deployments to other Middle East countries. We have Typhoons on QRA in the baltic region and other overseas Nato counties as well as in the UK.
Basically we have neither the numbers of aircraft nor trained pilots to undertake all the duties that are being demanded of our brave pilots and support personnel.
Shortages of equipment in many areas of our military has resulted in us falling below critical mass level required.
Keep the T1’s for FI and for Display Team – 9 Typhoons would look and sound amazing 🙂 could also be used as reserve for UK QRA