Typhoons from 140 Expeditionary Air Wing conducted a live fire strafing sortie as part of NATO’s Exercise Dacian Strike 24 (DAST24) in Smardan, Romania.
The RAF joined allies from Romania, Italy, France, Poland and USA in demonstrating how military assets can work together both in the air and from land.
Accordign to the RAF in a press release, DAST24 is a HQ Multi National Division-South East (MND-SE) ran exercise that focuses on developing Air Land Integration (ALI).
“Commanders and National representatives saw the coming together of the Division artillery and infantry fighting vehicles and Romanian SOCAT helicopters, Hawks and Royal Air Force Typhoons.
To start the demonstration French Army personnel opened with Caesar Howitzers to mark targets for RAF Typhoons to strike; this was followed by Romanian Army artillery and Romanian Air Force Hawks and rotary attack helicopters. The final wave saw Romanian artillery strikes allowing Polish Army ground assault units to move towards to the target area.”
Group Captain Pete Thorbjornsen, Royal Air Force UK Joint Force Air Component Director, was quoted as saying:
“Land integration is key in any future war fight. If we don’t understand each other’s environment, then we cannot hope to be part of a coalition in a multi-terrain war fight. It’s critical that we get the conditions set in place through training so we can execute properly in a war fighting operation environment.”
If you have to use Typhoon to do ground strafing something went very wrong…
Not really, sometimes there is a need when a Gun-Run is called for, Danger close, show of force etc etc, most USAF jets are equipped with the M61- 6 barreled Vulcan cannon to perform such air to ground missions, as & when the need arrives.
What else would the RAF use?
ATM the only other option is to use the Hawk c/w Gun Pod 😒
Not an act of war, clearly! My point is that the Typhoon is all we have to do strafing if that is required.
RAF Hawk no longer carries the ADEN Gun in a Pod. All disposed of.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAE_Systems_Hawk#/media/File:British_Aerospace_Hawk_T1A,_UK_-_Air_Force_AN1517250.jpg
RAF should not do strafing runs. No air force should do it.
It is completely silly and a waste of resources and huge risk for minimal gain.
The A10 used to strike fear into the Iraqi National Guard along with the Apache their presence alone was a game changer. When the Apaches came into refuel they even put a chill down my spine.
Seriously, just no.
Strafing runs are a completely valid tactic when the tactical situation enables it.
Totally agree, loot at the old typhoon at falaise or rhubarbs..
Um, and now I’m going to swing to the other side and point out that Post Battle analysis of destroyed Axis equipment in Normandy showed that the Typhoon’s effectiveness was massively overstated by their RAF, and even if it hadn’t Falaise isn’t really relevant to 2024 (in this context at least).
Where do you get that idea from Alex? Wiki: “In military tactics, close air support (CAS) is defined as aerial warfare actions—often air-to-ground actions such as strafes or airstrikes—by military aircraft against hostile targets in close proximity to friendly forces. A form of fire support, CAS requires detailed integration of each air mission with fire and movement of all forces involved. CAS may be conducted using aerial bombs, glide bombs, missiles, rockets, autocannons, machine guns, and even directed-energy weapons such as lasers”. After the initial collapse of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, airfields in Afghanistan became available for continuing operations… Read more »
It is a simple equation,
You are using a 100M$ aircraft that you can’t replace easily+ a pilot that took years to teach to attack at 1000m distance a dozens ragtag guys that can have a manpads or an heavy machine gun that you can’t react to. It just makes no sense.
The only instance i can see worthwhile is if a disguised landing ground with enemy aircraft was just discovered and you go strafing aircrafts there
So our fast jets should not overfly enemy positions? Ever? Might as well scrap them then. To look at the maths equation – should we not send £10m tanks anywhere near an enemy who has got a cheap LAW? You sound, Alex, as if you have never heard of CAS, and cannot believe that it happens. CAS happened a lot in Afghanistan. RAF and USMC Harriers were great at CAS in Afghanistan and Tornadoes were not too bad when they took over that role from the former in Afghan. Granted, a Typhoon is not the best aircraft to do CAS… Read more »
There are CAS did with missiles and guided bombs and there are CAS doing with a gun, they are very different regarding the aircraft and pilot survival to fight another day.
Yes – different weapons for sure. Do we have evidence that strafing with a cannon is so much more dangerous than firing missiles etc?
The canon on a Typhoon has a 4k range. Frankly you’re going to struggle to hit a fighter jet traveling Mach 1 with a HMG, even with optics (one of the reasons that MG’s are not used doctrinaly in an AD role anymore)
A 27mm cannon have a 4km range !? Doing CAS at Mach 1 !? You will not even have time to point the aircraft…
Yes Alex, because unlike you I’ve bothered to look up what I’m talking about, the Mauser on a Eurofighter is rated to be effective against ground targets out to 4,000m. I’m not sure why you are surprised, the effective firing range of a 25mm Bushmaster is 3km.
In war thing’s do go wrong .
Exposes the aircraft to huge risk for what benefits??
How long can the typhoon cannon fire for? Is it 180 30mm shells it carries?
I remember when the government thought it would be a good cost cutting exercise to not fit the cannon. Turned out when leaving a big heavy chunk of metal out of the aircraft it causes issues with flying it.
At one point I thought the RAF were going to get blue circle guns.
How the germans got away without fitting Pirate IRST on there planes without it causing issues I don’t know.
It has the Mauser BK-27 27mm cannon with 150 rounds. It fires at 1,000 to 1,700rpm variable-selectable. I make that 9 seconds at the lowest rpm. Probably enough for at least 4 passes considering how fast they go.
Quentin D63-Your post hasn’t appeared yet, just as an email notification to me at 01.51hrs. The F35B(&C, the A has it fitted internally) can take a TERMA A/S multi-mission pod (MMP) carrying the GAU-22/A and 220 rounds(4 barreled 25mm gatling gun). That’s a stealthy(ish) pod, fitted to the centerline as far as I can make out & it has a rate of fire of 3,300rpm, or about 4 seconds. I don’t know if the RAF Lightnings have them available or not.
Thanks Frank, yes my post must be in a “grey zone” somewhere…lol 🫤. I was asking if the UK will actually get gun pods for the F35Bs.
UKDJ on the 10th of June 2020 reported no plans to buy the gun pod. Don’t know if anythings changed since then.
It doesn’t cause an issue. The German Typhoons just don’t have PIRATE capability. (IRST, FLIR)
After the c of g study re moving the Mauser, and associated flight control software changes etc. A weight representative dummy was costed. The upshot was it was cheaper to fit the Mauser and not use it. Another ‘cost saving’ that added cost and created delay
140 Expeditionary Air Wing sounds impressive. If only it had Three Squadrons it really would be.
Your starter for 10: will the new labour govt’s defence review suggest we order some new Typhoons?
No because the review will be NATO centric.
If its not a NATO task it will get binned.
Luckily in past years someone thought of that and ringfenced the Falklands Islands budget into the NATO budget so they should be OK.
Radakin saying comforting words about US leadership and allied capability at the D-Day celebrations. His view is that Russia does not want war with NATO and that both Russia and China lack the military ‘proficiency’ of the US and its allies. Labour pitching their ‘ cast iron commitment to NATO’ defence policy today.
Events in the Red Sea have changed all that. Since then there have been no Labour statements about withdrawing from involvement in the areas outside NATO. It’s going to take a while to comprehend and understand that we now have thinking rational adults in charge and not dogma driven children!
Show of force ✅✅
Against any vehicle targets use a full carriage of Brimstone from 8+Km away and wave bye bye to 12 targets.
Strafing for show…
Brimstone for the Pro…
😉
Close Air Support should not be carried out by fast jets such as Typhoon. They were not designed for that type of engagement. CAS is in many ways the most dangerous type of aircraft action. To carry it out effectivly you need to be to be fast enough to get in and out, have enough fuel reserve to be able to stay on station for a period of time, have enough ground attack capability to make a diffrence and be able to withstand small arms fire as well as the other threats. Many nations use aircraft like the Hawk in… Read more »
Fixed wing drones can carry a great many laser guided 70mm rockets or similar PGM and self designate them from a level racetrack pattern, outside audible distance, won’t need to dive towards a target to carry out a gun run exposing itself. Loiter for hours without risking a pink body in the cockpit and allow a FAC on the ground to directly take control of the drone sights/weapons system. Putting the medicine where the pain is with fewer people in the loop.
Bring back the 2nd tactical air force and it’s hawker typhoons 😜🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
Altough Typhoon was intended primarily as an air superiority fighter, it is a multi-role aircaft and Air-Ground delivery/CAS has been maturing as a Typhoon capability for many years. In his 2022 book ‘Typhoon’, former RAF pilot Mike Sutton reported that he had used his 27 mm cannon during a strafing run in Syria, against ISIS targets, while supporting Allied ground units. The Typhoon has not been issued to the RAF just to make sure the pilots can enjoy the glamour of air to air combat. It is a multi-role aeroplane and must be able to take out or suppress ground… Read more »
This is a high risk use of a very sophisticated and expensive aircraft. Should be a task of last resort. Clearly illustrates how the RAF has been stripped out of wider offensive capability post Cold War.
The gun was more meant for air to air and yes if your dog fighting you get close enough to use it and dumb rounds cannot be jammed. The sound and splash of rounds around a speeding vessel often makes the crew think twice and give up. Way cheaper than a missile for some of the more simple uses. Yes a fast jet screaming over your head (only a few feet above it) makes many think about what they are going to do and has saved many a life. I do think the A10 or similar has a role to… Read more »
I see we have so many professionals in the comments, bruh most of yous never had a gun in your hands and you talk bs like they shouldn’t do that they wouldn’t do this ,let the military deal with this stuff ,the only thing you don’t know is that ,is nato ever gonna use this in a real situation, are they fully showing their real firepower with Russia having a eye on everything, and the last thing if you would’ve been soo wise and good at military tactics you would’ve been involved in it not talking some big class bs… Read more »