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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Britain's Largest Warship (1 Viewer)

Swarovski BTX in the Captain's cabin.

RNBWS is - or used to be - a very keen bunch of birders who did some great reporting. I was acquainted with a Royal Navy officer who was very proud of the time his frigate in the North Atlantic hosted a white Gyrfalcon that lived on Fulmars for a couple of weeks.

John
 
RNBWS is - or used to be - a very keen bunch of birders who did some great reporting. I was acquainted with a Royal Navy officer who was very proud of the time his frigate in the North Atlantic hosted a white Gyrfalcon that lived on Fulmars for a couple of weeks.

John

The Navy has / had it's own bulletin, 'Sea Swallow' I think it was?
 
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I don't think it's a replacement for Typhoon which carries a boatload of weapons and is the current class of the field in non-stealth dogfighting - but of course it's limited by needing airfields on solid ground.

Surprised to read that around 50 RAF Typhoons are " mothballed " at present ( even if they were part of the first deliveries ). That seems a heck of a lot of airframes to be in storage and unable to go if needed. Cannot quite my head round why they are kept if they would be ineffective ( not upgraded) against a well equipped enemy with state of the Migs and Sus. Also, for FJ, outdogfight the Rafael or Grippen?

P
 
Surprised to read that around 50 RAF Typhoons are " mothballed " at present ( even if they were part of the first deliveries ). That seems a heck of a lot of airframes to be in storage and unable to go if needed. Cannot quite my head round why they are kept if they would be ineffective ( not upgraded) against a well equipped enemy with state of the Migs and Sus. Also, for FJ, outdogfight the Rafael or Grippen?

P

Out of curiosity, how many battle ready, fastjet pilots do you think the RAF has, perhaps this is part of the reason they are mothballed?
 
Out of curiosity, how many battle ready, fastjet pilots do you think the RAF has, perhaps this is part of the reason they are mothballed?

About 100 - 125 for the RAF (fast jets only), based on the retirement of Tornado and the 50 odd Typhoons, pure guess.
 
Surprised to read that around 50 RAF Typhoons are " mothballed " at present ( even if they were part of the first deliveries ). That seems a heck of a lot of airframes to be in storage and unable to go if needed. Cannot quite my head round why they are kept if they would be ineffective ( not upgraded) against a well equipped enemy with state of the Migs and Sus. Also, for FJ, outdogfight the Rafael or Grippen?

P

You might want to talk to your Parliamentary candidates about the size of the RAF's fast jet force, then :-O

Quite a few Tornado F2s went into storage without being upgraded, too... it's not that unusual a situation. The Tornado GR1s at the Trinational Tornado Training Establishment at Cottesmore were little more than airworthy shells. With the Batch 1 Typhoons I'm not sure full upgrades are even possible, but I gather the intent is to form a couple of extra squadrons with the air-to-air only aircraft to do Aggressor training for the rest of the RAF (and our Allies?) and provide QRA, reducing the pressure on the fully capable swing-role jets.

As for Rafale I've no knowledge (it looks great at RIAT!) but the French have a history of capable, slippery dogfighters, though sometimes persistence in the fight is an issue in respect of both weapons and fuel: Gripen, although manoeuvrable, doesn't have the out-and-out power that provides the edge in the close-in fight where its all about energy. How long can you sustain that 9G pull without losing (or even while still gaining) altitude or even stalling out? I suspect the Typhoon's systems are superior as well.

John
 
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