The UK Ministry of Defence has repeatedly assessed the possibility of donating Tranche 1 Typhoon jets to Ukraine but has decided against it, according to Defence Minister Luke Pollard.
In response to a parliamentary question from Conservative MP Mark Francois, Pollard confirmed that the UK will instead continue its focus on supporting European F-16 donations to Ukraine.
Pollard noted that “Denmark and the Netherlands announced they would donate up to 61 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, which is significantly greater than the number of Tranche 1 Typhoons in RAF service.”
Given this, and after “detailed conversations with the Ukrainian Government,” the UK determined that its resources would be better used in supporting F-16 operations.
The UK’s role in training Ukrainian pilots remains a key contribution. Pollard highlighted that “24 Ukrainian pilots have graduated from intensive Fast Jet Lead-in training under the guidance of Royal Air Force instructors.”
He also attended their graduation, stating, “we should be very proud of our role training them, and proud of the brave individuals we train for supporting their freedom.”
As part of its commitment to Ukraine’s air force, the UK is providing elementary flying training as well as English language training for Ukrainian technicians and pilots who will operate F-16s.
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Well you better replace the ones you donate. I would think that donating different types of aircraft would complicated logistics and training.
It would be demented to offer Typhoon T1 – as RAF would have to continue to support and train for that type – which is half the reason it was cut in the first place.
But Spain with a massively smaller budget than hours can keep tranche 1 and upgrade them. Chucking 30 airframes away with plenty life left in them is criminal in today’s world.
RAF needs to change its mindset.
It’s no longer a four ship to add on to a US mission with a bit of AWACS and AAR to bring to the party.
It needs mass, fast.
It all depends if BAE will give a fixed priced contract to upgrade them to T4/5 spec?
Given the NIMROD fiasco MOD are very wary of ‘patching things up’
RAF will be very wary of creating a unique sub type(s) [yup there might be more than one because of how Typhoon went into production and some T1’s were production/approval prototypes].
So yes, reduce to produce should be frozen pending agreement.
BUT if it isn’t much faster or much cheaper than building new with remanufactured engines from the common pool….I’m not sure why you’d want to go down that route?
But kept as intact as possible they should be.
No one has ever asked BAE for an upgrade price. Spain is doing a limited upgrade basically to tranche 2/3 standard so the tranche 1 can operate Meteor with the operation to install the full CAPTOR E at a later date and bring it up to tranche 4/5 standard. Personally I would be happy with 5 more years of them like we planned to do in 2020 before magically changing the plan which had absolutely nothing to do with money “honest govnor”
Tranche 1 will be flying no mater what in the FI until 2027 so the fleets in fleets issue already exists.
I can also find no evidence yet as is often surmised on here that the existing tranche 1 aircraft have been disassembled. If anyone does have anything beyond conjecture please do share.
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Spain did its upgrade to t1 Typhoon for 6 million euro per plane. A new Eurofighter is in the region of 140 million euro. The Daily Mail is reporting that the t1 RAF Typhoons may be retained to keep the numbers up in case of a large deployment to a peacekeeping force in Ukraine.
Spot on!
It’s not the RAF mindset, it’s the bean counters and 2021 defence review, sorry cuts that decided to remove the Tranche 1 Typhoon, Hercules etc. That was a political decision not a service one. Though for logistics it made “sense” because there are major spares availability problems for Typhoon, again driven by lack of money.
It’s not about mindset. It’s about doing what it can with the funds available. And the RAF choose to upgrade T2/3 Typhoons with a very significant investment.
T2/T3 were always going to have the radar upgrade. T1 went fund other “Defence priorities ” such as cyber.
As the article points out we are NOT donating Typhoons.
Specsavers reqd.
Coll, our army has had little equipment replaced for that donated to Ukraine. Would the RAF have better luck with the politicos?
Not true.
What has been replaced then? Any new IFVs,tanks on the books now!
Agree it’s probably better to try and support them with a far more numerous type like the F16 rather than spending a load of time and money on donating a couple of dozen comparatively bespoke airframes.
Plus it’s my understanding that a lot of the tranche 1’s have been stripped for spares already.
Come the peace the UK, Germany and Italy need to sell Ukriane Typhoons.. because the rump Ukraine will need a very large western airforce and I doubt it will want F16s when the US has essentially grounded the F16s Ukraine does have..
Personally if that means selling older airframes and the RAF buying new trance 4/5 aircraft that would not be a bad move.
The US hasn’t grounded Ukraine’s F16s
Yes it has, it stopped support for spares maintenance and that was essentially a grounding..the fact they have now said they will restart, does not remove the action they took.
The USA was not the donor for these F16’s – they came from European stocks,their respective previous owners would handle Spares and support etc.
We have to keep tranche 1s. Simple as that. At least until 60-70 new build tranche 4s are available. Once that happens then sure we can give tranche 1s to Ukraine.
Do not get your hopes up for large new orders.
The Tranche 1’s are going to be scrapped in a very soon.
That’s very Sir Humphrey.
No mention of “but ours are now nearly all in bits”.
Clearly Typhoons are entirely the wrong platform, anyway.
The only info I am able to find is that the 26 tranche 1’s are due to be retired at the end of March 2025 so I would seriously doubt they have been disassembled as it’s still early March. Have you got anything to suggest that date is wrong?
Makes more sense if there is to be a British air patrol force in Ukraine in the future to send our very best and most modern aircraft to police it, sends a clear message to Russia that we mean business and will match anything they can put in the air. we should keep the T1 for air defence at home and upgrade them accordingly, give them another 10 years if possible and start replacing with the Tempest or whatever they’re calling it now come 2035. Discarding military aircraft in todays political climate is plain stupidity, at the very least the T1 should be kept in flight worthy condition in storage.
T1 would make poor home defense due to inferior Radar and weaponry
Rubbish -Typhoon T1 is quite capable of providing effective CAP’s over UK Airspace,not up to the best standards maybe but AMRAAM/ASRAAM are plenty good enough.
It is a fantasy to suggest NATO will be policing any cease fire or “peace”. Mad Vlad still wants Ukraine de-militarised. The only hope is a massive standing Ukrainian military and some kind of DMZ and a long Cold War style standoff for generations. On another point, storage of military equipment for future use seems to be an anathema to the West and that needs to change fast.
Should have been done 3 years ago
And also placed the orders required to boost the RAF
Fleet of EFA planes
0.2 is a joke
Should have been 4.0 3 years ago. Europe has hung out Ukraine to dry
Maybe USA should be supplying A10 thunderbolt II to Ukraine or Europe can purchase then and then supply them
It’s a shambles
The A10 would be dead in seconds in Ukraine, you would be better of sending them spitfires. At least they would not be so expensive to operate.
Ukraine and Russia both operate the SU-25, a significantly more vulnerable aircraft
Let’s not get ourselves into much a Stuchie (old Scottish slang) translation meaning (Don’t Panic Captain Manwaring) having watched the latest installment ‘Top Gun’ R.A.F.(CH 4 ) series and being a Proud Veteran having served in the ‘Junior Service ‘ all be it will be celebrating 107 Years of service to the Country (no I’m not 107)😂
I can truthfully say that this Nation is in extremely safe hands all be that in the powerful and inspiring words of Winston Churchill (You know the words and if you’re unfamiliar with them please refer to them as a matter of National Pride .Per Ardua Ad Astra /K.S.K
Mate, you need to take off those rose tinted spectacles and look at the RAF with a cold hard logical view. Like the other three services, there are so many gaps and equipment holidays in the service, that it’s going to take years to fix. I’m not discounting or belittling the commitment or the espirit de corps by those that serve. Only the tools they have been given or not!
Generally best practice to never say/state never. Once GCAP/Tempest reaches IOC w/ the RAF, opportunities may present themselves to augment allied capabilities w/ Typhoons (from various Tranches) deemed surplus to requirements.
Stop talking rubbish. We have no spare Typhoons at all. We barely have enough for our own needs.
FormerUSAF has a point. Once GCAP gets past IOC (around 2035ish) and enough airframes are in service. Typhoon will be surplus to requirements. At which point logically, they will likely be trying to sell them off.