RAF Typhoons have conducted Air Integration training with Rafale fighter jets alongside the Charles de Gaulle Carrier Strike Group.
The RAF say here that Typhoons from 903 Expeditionary Air Wing have taken part in Exercise OLYMPUS DAWN, providing a range of joint training opportunities, flying with Rafale multi-role fighter jets as well as conducting Air Maritime Integration with the Strike group.
“The exercise conducted over two days over the Mediterranean saw the Typhoons practice simulated long-range missile employment based on radar tracks of the opposing fighters before closing to do visual combat training (dog fighting).
The RAF Voyager tanker from 903 Expeditionary Air Wing provided air-to-air training to extend the time on task for the fighters so they could repeat the training to further improve proficiency. The Typhoons also simulated attacks on the Carrier Strike group to testing their response to approaching missiles and enemy aircraft.”
Air Commodore Thomas, Air Component Commander in the Middle East, was quoted as saying:
“Exercise OLYMPUS DAWN was a fantastic chance for us to conduct joint training with the Charles de Gaulle Carrier Strike Group and French Rafale aircraft. Using RAF Typhoons and a Voyager aircraft from 903 Expeditionary Air Wing, the opportunity to work together and share best practice with one of our key partners has continued to show our close co-operation and interoperability development.”
Read more on this here.
Good to see these 2 very capable aircraft and airforces working together. Gives a potential adversary more to think about rather than going up against one aircraft type.
shame about it being with the french
Working jointly is highly valuable training. As with all operations of the last 30 years, they have been allied operations, not single nations operating on their own.
A very sensible set of recommendations but I fear that individual countries protecting their own industries will continue to lead to fragmentation of effort
Not sure that’s entirely bad to have choices, for instance NATO has 3 US US 4th Gen aircraft, 3 European 4.5 Gen and 2 US 5th Gen airframes. All a have strengths and weaknesses but makes for tactical nightmare for an enemy. Start mixing those types and that complicates things further. All having one type has advantages but if a weakness is found and exploited then the whole of NATO is exposed.
Possibly, but the current political tremours are having a profound impact on all Western-minded nations. Both Russia and China pose a significant challenge to how defence budgets are structured and one way to ensure a united front is the union of effort, which could, allow in some cases, a reduction in spending. Currently, we all have a gun at our heads at the same time face perilous climate issues and economic pressures way beyond what we had witnessed prior to Covid and Ukraine. I doubt there should be any formal declaration of common sharing other than an overwhelming recognition of… Read more »
Rising defence costs affect everyone globally. While it is true fleets are reduced in size this is also true for rivals. It’s not like Russia or China have fleets of several hundred SU57 or J20.
China is not far off having lots of J20s. Hopefully they stay peaceful as taking them on in there back yard is becoming a serious if not impossible challenge.
Estimated numbers of J20 vary from 140-250. In service
True but J20 engines are not very good and I came across a stat saying the Chinese Airforce have lost over 2,000 pilots in training in a decade , Experience and training is everything and China is lacking badly on that in all of it’s military services , look at the Ukraine war Russia troop quality is dire.
What will be interesting to see is the performance of their new engine plus, their equivalent of the B2 the H-20 stealth bomber.
Clearly, they will be behind the west but catching up at an alarming pace it seems.
LINK J-20
LINK H-20
Yet! Both China and Russia have an aggressive policy in regard to external political and military objectives. The growth rate of China’s defences is not diminishing and there appears to be no cooling of Russia’s desire to reinstate its forces even in the face of crippling losses in Ukraine.
British french speaking pilots and english speaking french pilots?
Good question, in civil aviation English is the lingua Franca but how far that spreads in the military I’m not sure, I suspect some distance mind simply as pilots operate within the civilian environment and unpredictably in terms of any given location.
Trained pilots is the problem most air forces face, not least our own. Waiting 5,6, 7 years to qualify whilst trying not to die of boredom is a major problem. The Chinese have more planes than pilots so they are not immune.
About time they sorted the training stream so they get there in 3 years from start and perhaps a little something that will test their flying skills not an AI direct computer. Hi – low mix like we once had. If its simple its easy to work with and delivers. Too few eggs in basket will hit us in the end due to over stretch of whats available.
There is a YouTube channel called aircrew interview and the pilots I’ve heard from the 80-90s seemed to spend 3 years training then to a squadron. I don’t know when it doubled/trebled but it needs fixed. Problem now is it will take extra effort to get the backlog trained.
The planning of just getting enough training to manage if everything runs perfectly clearly has not worked
The core problem is the tiny numbers being trained. Back in the 1980’s the RAF and FAA could run courses back-to-back or even in parallel, now a trainee pilot might twiddle their thumbs for months before the next course on say tactical weapons starts. A partial solution is to send trainees to American or NATO Flying Training Schemes, but this further atrophies demand for UK sovereign training capabilities, whilst the pilot is immersed for months if not years in a foreign military environment and culture, and returns more a USAF officer than a RAF/RN officer. The real answer is to… Read more »
Great channel. Mike seems a great guy, and he loves the Tornado F3. Just like me 😄👍
Correct MS – in my time in the Air Force it was 3 years to weapons qualified OCU
It’s clear goal the RAF need to aim to get back to. There should be a clear plan that says we need x number of pilots to enter the program and that will make an average of x number finishing the program. This will require x number of aircraft/simulators/trainers and we aim for 3 years start to finish. The consequences of not doing this is critical mass will drop and then we can’t get pilot numbers back up. Cost estimate is this much. Until it’s sorted there’s not much point buying more aircraft. Especially if some of these drones are… Read more »
My comment deleted again probably to close to home for the Russian trolls ,UKDJ need to change the flag system its being abused.