Here’s how a Typhoon multirole aircraft can hit two targets at the same time with a single targeting pod April 29, 2013
Posted by David Cenciotti in : Military Aviation , add a commentThe recent article about the Typhoon fighter jet performing first laser guided, self designating, simultaneous guided bomb drops sparked some debate.
Although other aircraft are known to have similar capabilities, some readers asked how a combat plane could hit two targets at same time with only a single laser designator of the Litening pod.
Image credit: BAE Systems
I asked Andrea Kay, Senior Communications Advisor at BAE Systems, one of the companies of the Eurofighter consortium, to shed some light on the matter.
Andrea inquired his colleague Bob Smith, Engineering Director for Combat Air and here is Smith’s response:
“The Litening Pod is capable of illuminating/tracking multiple targets at any point in time, however, the implementation on the RAF Tranche 1 Aircraft was an austere implementation, limiting the system to a single target attack at any one time . So the answer to the specific question below is yes it does switch between targets at a high rate. The Laser does not need to change frequency for each target because the bomb is assigned to a target and just follows the Laser beam.”
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Timelapse video of forward Island being installed on UK’s future supercarrier March 15, 2013
Posted by Richard Clements in : Aircraft Carriers, Military Aviation , 4commentsMar. 14 saw the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, an alliance of several ship building companies (namely BAE Systems, THALES, Babcock and DE&S) released a time lapse video of the installation of HMS Queen Elizabeth‘s first of two islands.
Image credit: Royal Navy / UK MoD
The hull of the carrier, which is nearly as large as a Nimitz class carrier, and will host F-35B STOVL (Short Take Off Vertical Landing) 5th generation planes, has almost been completed and the inclusion of one of the islands which had been constructed in Portsmouth and brought to Scotland by barge makes the hulk something resembling an aircraft carrier at last.
The two carriers (Queen Elizabeth & Prince of Wales) are being built in a modular fashion in several yards all over the UK and then shipped to Rosyth in Scotland to be assembled into the finished article.
This isn’t a new process but one that is used in the construction of cruise ships and other large ocean going vessels.
Here’s the computer generated video of the construction process
The real thing
Richard Clements for TheAviationist.com
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German Eurofighter Typhoons train in Sardinia to improve air-to-air skills September 14, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in : Military Aviation , 2commentsThe following pictures, taken few days ago by The Aviationist’s Giovanni Maduli at Decimomannu airbase, Italy, show the German Eurofighter Typhoons of the Jagdgeschwader 73 (Fighter Wing 73) “Steinhoff” during their “summer training camp” in the Sardinia’s ACMI (Air Combat Maneuvering Installation) ranges.
The German Air Force single and double seat F-2000s are involved in air-to-air training sorties that involve BAE Systems’ A-4Ns as well as GFD’s Learjet 35 target tugs.
The Luftwaffe’s Typhoon performed very well in the air defense role during the recent Red Flag Alaska, where four Eurofighters are believed to have accounted for 16 simulated kills from 18 simulated missile shots on one sortie.
“Yesterday we had Raptor salad for lunch” a German Typhoon pilot said after dogfighting with the F-22 at Red Flag Alaska.
During the RF-A, in one German-led DCA (Defensive Conter Air) mission, the friendly force achieved a record score of 38:1; 38 planes shot down, one lost.
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- Farnborough 2012: “Yesterday we had Raptor salad for lunch” Typhoon pilot said after dogfighting with the F-22 at Red Flag Alaska (theaviationist.com)
- Spain to defer the delivery and purchase of 12 Typhoon fighter planes signed with the Eurofighter Defense Consortium (theaviationist.com)
- RAF Typhoon scrambles for second intercept in London Olympics No-Fly Zone (theaviationist.com)
- F-22 to deploy to Japan. With a solution to the oxygen problem (and some concerns about the AMRAAM missile) (theaviationist.com)
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Spain to defer the delivery and purchase of 12 Typhoon fighter planes signed with the Eurofighter Defense Consortium August 24, 2012
Posted by felixiturbide in : Military Aviation , add a commentSpanish Defense Minister, Pedro Morenés, has confirmed that Spain wants to defer the delivery and purchase of 12 Eurofighter Typhoon warplanes he has signed with the Eurofighter Defense Consortium and were going to get this year.
He has not detailed the economic impact of this decision, although it is clear that it will have a financial effect because the contract provides significant penalties for countries who do not acquire all units that were committed to receive.
Spain’s economic crisis has put government finances and defense budget under intense pressure. Late last year, the Spanish Ministry of Defense accumulated a delay of about 400 million euros by Cassidian Eurofighter but a payment of 309 million Euro in February brought the government back on track.
Spain committed to acquire a total of 87 European fighters amounting to 9.255 million euros, divided into three stages or tranches: 19 in the first phase, 34 in the second and 34 in the third. Subsequently, the third stage divided into two subphases: Phase 3A (20) and 3B (14).
In August 2009, during the Socialist government, Spain signed the purchase of 15 fighter jets and options for five more as part of the subphase or Tranche 3A and due to start being delivered in 2013.
Image credit: EADS CASA
Considered the situation in Euro-zone it appears less and less likely that there will be a Tranche 3B. The question is how to escape termination costs. Further negotiations can be expected, but one option is to count future exports as re-sales of scheduled orders from existing partner countries.
After BAE Systems failed its bid to supply 126 fighter jets to India, now Cassidian Spain leads the formal offer of the European consortium to secure a contract valued at over 7 billion euros with which South Korea desires to purchase 60 fighter aircrafts. In earlier statements, the final selection of the next-generation fighter would be announced sometime in October.
Now, DAPA (South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration) admits that October is only an optimistic initial target date and the final selection may not be announced until early 2013.
El Lince Analista for TheAviationist.com
Korean journalists visiting Spanish Air Force 11th Wing. Moron Air Base. May 8, 2012 (credit: Spanish Air Force)
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An unusual visitor at Nellis Air Force Base: Obama's Air Force One, world's most heavily defended plane August 22, 2012
Posted by David Cenciotti in : Military Aviation , 6commentsBeing the base of the Red Flag, Nellis Air Force Base, near Las Vegas, is used to host U.S. and foreign combat planes quite frequently.
However, the Air Force One is a quite rare sight at Nellis too.
The following picture depicts the Air Force One landing there on Aug. 21, 2012. President Obama went to Las Vegas to discuss education and spending with members of the local community.
Image credit: U.S. Air Force
The Air Force One is a highly modified Boeing 747 designated VC-25 by the U.S. Air Force. Most probably, the two examples of the plane are the most heavily defended aircraft in the world.
Although much of the self-protection suite is classified the aircraft is known to be fitted with active electronic counter measures, that are able to jam enemy radar frequencies as well as IRCM (Infrared Counter Measure) systems needed to divert heat seeking Infra Red missiles by disturbing their guidance systems.
The one in use on the AF1 is the AN/ALQ-204 Matador produced by the BAe Systems. Such system protect the plane from both IR air-to-air and ground-to-air (MANPADS – Man Portable Air Defense Systems) missiles.
The plane is also equipped with chaff and flares dispensers: the first type is used to divert radar-guided missiles, while the flares are high-temperature heat sources ejected from the aircraft’s dispensers to mislead the missile’s heat-seeking targeting system: since the burn temperature is hotter than that at the engine’s exhaust the burning flares attract and decoy heat-seeking missiles fired at the aircraft.
Chaffs are similar: they are small pieces of aluminium (or any other glass fiber) that generate a radar return (or multiple returns) thus hiding the aircraft from the enemy launching platform and missile radars.
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- Too cool to be true: a night sortie on board the B-52 Stratofortress. As seen through the Night Vision Goggles (theaviationist.com)
