During a recent routine patrol over Iraq, British Typhoon jets identified rockets being launched in Iraq against coalition forces.
To defend against this attack, the aircraft successfully used a Paveway IV precision-guided bomb to destroy the rocket launcher system.
The video is shown below.
During a recent routine Operation Shader patrol, 2 @RoyalAirForce Typhoons identified rockets being launched in Iraq against coalition forces.
To defend against this attack, our aircraft successfully used a Paveway IV precision-guided bomb to destroy the rocket launcher system. pic.twitter.com/adYl6bkE1i— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) April 26, 2024
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.
100 aircraft is far too small of a force to meet all these commitments.
Retiring the harrier was weapons grade dumb.
Couldn’t agree with you more Chris ,specially when the Harrier is still flying with the USA, and Spain.
72 perfectly good aircraft thrown away at a big steal price those harriers and the tornadoes would have been in their element against the houthis and dash, instead we tried millions of pounds worth of missiles at remote controlled toys and force our pilots to fly for hours to get to the targets wearing them and the aircraft out.
Typhoon is far superior and capable in every way compared to the Harrier and Tornado. And we never had 72 Harrier GR7s in service. 48 were available across the frontline sqns and the OCU at anyone time.
How would Harriers a close support aircraft have been useful against the Houthis, not sure it would have been useful against Daesh either tbh as where would we fly them from in theatre. If we flew Tornados then surely they would have had to endure the same flight hours as Typhoons and what cheaper missiles would they exploit when they got there.
Tornado did a great job in Libya, but honestly, the amount of maintenance those frames would have taken up and the cost of flying them would have gotten horrific by now.
As part of the bigger picture, surely this demonstrates that: –
A. Upgrading can be cheaper than new tech in some cases.
B. ‘Mothballing’ aircraft, ships and whatever, can prove more productive in the long run, rather than trashing airframes with bulldozers, or flogging them off cheaply.
Let’s hope they keep T1 Typhoons 🙏
4 being kept for falklands QRA
Not for much longer.
Agreed it had it’s shortcomings, but t conflicts of recent times have been ideal environments for it. The new careers could have carried a far larger air wing than the F 35 load shame that the new tempest program doesn’t appear to include a STOVL version in it. The price we had for 79+ aircraft was a joke, much like the one with the sale of ocean. No wonder we’re in such a shit state when unqualified idiots make decisions like those, and get away with it. As usual it’s us the taxpayers who are ripped off
Agree we need 300+
And not only should we not have retired the Harrier, perhaps we should have kept the Tornado.
And yet the Typhoon force meets its requirements every single time. Because of its outstanding people, and a very capable aircraft backed up with very slick support and maintenance planning.
Yes, but for how long?
The Typhoon force has been delivering for 17+ years.
Barely adequate a force for peacetime. We need a lot more to weather any conflict or start learning Chinese or Russian.
Russia can’t invade Ukraine. I think we can sleep well at night
Ballistic Missile defences? We are nearly as badly off as we were in 1944.
Complicated aircraft suffer increased servicability issues. Having small fleets of complicated aircraft and then deploying them operationally everywhere all the time is going to wear out precious, irreplacable things. You may also find the availabilty of operationally deployed aircraft a somewhat underwhelming figure.
Typhoon availability is well over 90%. The more they fly, generally the more reliable they become. Especially in warmer climates. The BAE Systems Typhoon engineering support contract TyTAN (Typhoon Total Availability Enterprise) guarantees a certain number of aircraft to the frontline at any given time. Including the ability to increase that number in times of need.
Robert not sure where you get the 90% availability statistic. Maybe if you were operating out of one of the 2 UK bases where there are onsite spares and engineers to perform quick maintenance and the ability to call in people from Warton at short notice. However operating away from a main base and quick repair is a different ball game. The requirements to have an aircraft to have all it’s systems working, comms, radars, IFF, defence aids, weapon pods, air-to-air refuelling is paramount. A loss of one of these systems in an operational theatre makes the aircraft un-serviceable. There… Read more »
And that is why the Typhoon Force has a huge logistics and engineering tail, so operations far from home can go ahead, and are fully supported. Deployed Typhoons don’t need a guy from Warton, because that guy has already done his Job back at Coningsby. Typhoons have been deploying globally for many years, and enjoy very high serviceability rates due to the design of the aircraft and the excellent engineering support provided for global operations.