Royal Air Force Typhoons have forward deployed to Norway above the Arctic Circle, to carry out an Agile Combat Employment exercise from Estonia, where they are currently based conducting the NATO Air Policing mission.
According to an RAF news release, the Typhoon deployment was to take part in Exercise Tempest Strike and Exercise Tower Guardian. The first exercise, Tempest Strike has seen the Typhoons fly from Amari Air Base in Estonia to the Norwegian Air base at Orland.
“At Orland, the Typhoons were refuelled and rearmed with Paveway IV precision-guided bombs at a Forward Arming and Refuelling Point that had been rapidly deployed. The Forward Arming and Refuelling Point created a staging point that allowed the Typhoons to then push forward towards the northern limits of mainland Europe.
The Forward Arming and Refuelling Point is a key element of the new Agile Combat Employment concept and was built and then disbanded to mimic that of a rapid redeployment. Once rearmed and refuelled, the fighters from 1 (F) Squadron, deployed further north to Bardufoss Airbase, inside the Arctic Circle, where they then went on to conduct bombing sorties at the Setermoen Range.”
Wing Commander Scott MacColl, Commanding Officer of 140 Expeditionary Air Wing, was quoted as saying:
“Our forward deployment to the high-north has shown the RAF’s capability to undertake operations in austere environments with precision, effectiveness and with limited command and support nodes.
What we have shown is that the RAF can re-deploy both aircraft and personnel at short notice from already deployed locations. This was a valuable opportunity to develop our approach and will have applicability to several aircraft types. As we look to integrate further with NATO Allies and JEF partners, such as the US and the Nordic states, our ability to rapidly deploy and deliver effect together will strengthen capabilities and relationships.”
During their forward deployment to Norway, the Typhoons also exercised with B1 Lancers of the USAF Strategic Bomber Task Force, as part of Exercise Tower Guardian.
Training for that special operation that they do at Christmas.
😂
Something we should be looking at. SEAD will be a key mission of the Eurofighter EK being developed for Germany, as evidenced by the Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM). (Janes/Gareth Jennings) “A NATO Industrial Advisory Group (NIAG) has been established to explore airborne electronic attack (AEA)/suppression of enemy air defence (SEAD) concepts and technologies that could meet alliance needs for 2030 and beyond. Chartered through the Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD), the NIAG Study Group 286 (SG-286) on SEAD Capabilities held a kick-off meeting during May. The study activity, lasting for approximately 18 months, will deliver a capability audit… Read more »
Stealth Vs. Electronic AttackApril 21, 2014 “The U.S. Navy will need to use a combination of stealth and electronic warfare capabilities to defeat advanced anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) threats in the future, chief of naval operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert said on April 16 at the U.S. Naval Institute annual meeting in Washington, D.C. “[Stealth] is needed for what we have in the future for at least ten years out there and there is nothing magic about that decade,” Greenert said. “But I think we need to look beyond that. So to me, I think it’s a combination of having aircraft that… Read more »
Just another of the many capabilities we have long since given up on that renders us incapable of doing anything without external support.
The F35’s APG-81 and APG-85 radar and the Typhoons new Mk2 ECRS radars will both have electronic attack SEAD/DEAD capability.
Will have….
I’ll be a pensioner before we have a useful number of them.
But at least it’s coming. F35 has that capability today. Its EW capability is as good as 4th gen aircraft designed for the dedicated role.
So, you’re in your early 20s then 😂
At least there is a funded project for Radar2 for Typhoon!
So I’m not so pessimistic.
Yes, indeed. 2.35Bn is being spent on Typhoon upgrades. A big chunk of that money is for Radar 2. The only downside is we won’t see it on many RAF Typhoons before 2030.
Not really.
What are you trying to achieve?
Taking out radars?
Find the radar and send a GPS missile to take it out; or
Steer a missile onto it with course corrections from Mother.
There is less need for Anti Radiation missiles.
Given the useless EW that Russia have demonstrated and F35B would run rings round them.
“There is less need for Anti Radiation missiles.” I have to disagree here. The ability to jam gps has proliferated rapidly to where even non state actors have the capability so targeting a specific point on the map won’t always be effective. There is also the issue that being mobile has become almost a prerequisite for all but the largest radars so the place where you detected a radar a few minutes ago could have moved a significant distance a few minutes later. The larger issue imo is just jamming is its a temporary solution and the problem might still… Read more »
“ being mobile has become almost a prerequisite for all”
There are not turning and burning as they are driving around. The stabiliser legs are out?
I use GPS as a catch all for some known (GPS & laser) and other technologies that are less well know but still used.
However, with dynamic mid course corrections from Mother (launch platform) using it sensors in stand off this is not such an issue. There is not a dependable on the sensors of the missile.
“The stabiliser legs are out?” I’ve seen claims that the shorter range system are able to do this while the larger s400 type can set up in under ten minutes and pack up and leave in under 5. Those claims probably originated from Russia so make of it what you will. Far from a radar expert but I also have concerns about the raw power of the ground based systems in this scenario. As good as the f35 radar is at some point the traditionally more powerful ground based radar will burn through the jamming especially if the f35 is… Read more »
Messing with radar is much more complex than blasting out RF. Russian style EW is mainly blasting out sawtooth, square wave, sinewave at huge power levels. Thing is digital radar isn’t fooled by that kind of thing. It was assumed that their EW trucks were a lot more sophisticated: they were not a lot better than 1970’s tech. Power levels are not that high for delicate spoofing as you are mimicking the radar return and creating ghosts. Moving a truck in 5 mins doesn’t help a great deal if there is a loitering munition hanging around that is cued my… Read more »
Indeed, this article is worth reading in full to get a better picture of what we require, including other European allies. Getting Serious About SEAD: European Air Forces Must Learn from the Failure of the Russian Air Force over Ukraine Professor Justin Bronk6 April 2022 SEAD/DEAD Capability is Essential “The immediate lesson is that Russia’s failure and Ukraine’s inability to conduct successful suppression and/or destruction of enemy air defences (SEAD/DEAD) operations has crippled the battlefield effectiveness of both air forces. This is vital to understand because at present no Western air force other than the US Air Force has any… Read more »