One of the key areas of clarity anticipated with the publication next month of the UK government’s second Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) concerns the size and shape of its future combat aircraft fleet.
Today, the Royal Air Force operates two types in the defensive and offensive roles: the Eurofighter Typhoon and Panavia Tornado GR4. Its use of the latter is due to conclude later this decade, with its capabilities to be largely assumed by the Typhoon and Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, which is being acquired in the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) B-model variant.
Released five years ago, the UK’s previous SDSR contained several controversial decisions, the most emotive of which led to the early retirement of the RAF and Royal Navy’s joint fleet of BAE Systems Harrier GR9/9A ground-attack aircraft.
The rationale behind the 2010 decision was that only by removing an aircraft type entirely from use would the required level of financial savings be realised, in both the operating and support areas. Despite its previous strong showing in Afghanistan and also embodying the RN’s prized carrier strike capability, the iconic Harrier was sacrificed in part due to the Tornado’s ability to deploy the strategically-important MBDA Storm Shadow cruise missile.
The departure of the GR9/9A fleet in December 2010 stripped the UK of its last aircraft carrier-based strike aircraft, with the RN’s own Sea Harrier FA2 fighters having been retired in 2006. Other models which have left UK use within the last decade also include the RAF’s Sepecat Jaguars – in 2007 – and the air defence-roled Tornado F3, which ceased operation in 2011.
Once combined, the disappearance of these types has seen the number of combat air squadrons trimmed significantly, and also had a major impact on the UK’s military pilot training requirement.
Today, the RAF has five frontline Typhoon squadrons, with these located at two bases. Its main operating location for the type, at Coningsby in Lincolnshire, hosts its 3 and 11 squadrons, plus the 29 Sqn operational conversion unit (OCU) for the type. RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland is the home for its 1, 2 and 6 squadrons.
With two units having been disbanded in March 2014 as part of a planned gradual fleet run-down, there are now only three operational squadrons equipped with the Tornado GR4: 9, 12 and 31; all based at RAF Marham in Norfolk. Flight activities also continue on the type’s 15 Sqn OCU at Lossiemouth.
The Tornado force is currently expected to remain in service until 2019, and its involvement in the current US-led operation against Islamic State militants in Iraq has twice seen the Ministry of Defence defer plans to further trim its squadron structure. Most recently, defence secretary Michael Fallon on 4 August announced that 12 Sqn will fly on until March 2017, and hailed the variable-geometry type’s delivery of “precision firepower, intelligence and surveillance” from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus.
With three F-35Bs already being evaluated by the RAF, just how many examples the UK needs - and can afford - is a question that must be answered
USAF
The RAF has played a long game when it comes to “combat air” in advance of the new SDSR’s publication. While its future force mix will contain the Typhoon and F-35B, many questions have yet to be answered about timings and aircraft numbers.
Speaking during a BAE Systems-organised media briefing at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) in the UK in July, several of the RAF’s senior commanders shared their thoughts about the continuity of capability post-Tornado, and their reasoning behind type selections for current missions.
For Air Marshal Baz North, deputy commander capability, the message is clear: there will be “absolutely no gap in capability” when the last Tornado GR4s are retired. “We have a Strategic Defence and Security Review that sits before us, and we are looking at things within our combat air mass,” he says, adding that Typhoons will represent 75% of this.
To date, the Typhoon force’s only offensive air-to-surface action was chalked up alongside the GR4 over Libya in 2011. Since then, the Eurofighter has been kept focused on providing quick reaction alert cover for the UK and also for the Falkland Islands. In late August, a four-month detachment of aircraft to Amari air base in Estonia concluded, with the aircraft providing part of NATO’s Baltic Air Policing, and intercepting Russian air force types including the RAC MiG-31.
Speaking at RIAT, North defended the RAF’s decision so far to not deploy Typhoons to participate in the international mission against Islamic State – although several were temporarily sent to Akrotiri to ensure the safety of airspace in the region, before a UK parliamentary decision was made, preventing the UK from performing strikes inside Syria.
Noting that the service must deliver both air-to-air and air-to-surface capability, North says: “We are performing the jobs with the best aircraft for those jobs. We are applying the right platform at the right time.”
While the Eurofighter programme’s marketing push to secure fresh export orders and extend production beyond 2018 or 2019 could benefit from a ground-attack deployment, the RAF’s timetable does not support this.
An ongoing effort now referred to as Project Centurion is to add key weapons to the Typhoon, including the Storm Shadow and the Brimstone 2 evolution of the MBDA air-to-surface missile now being used by Tornado crews in the Middle East. These enhancements will follow the addition of MBDA’s Meteor beyond visual-range air-to-air missile, and provide a swing-role capability to support a range of operational requirements.
The timing of Project Centurion leaves little room for error, with the standard due to achieve operational readiness in December 2018; just months before the Tornado’s expected retirement. The milestone will also follow the introduction of the nation’s first F-35Bs with the RAF’s 617 Sqn, although the new type will need more time to gain full combat capability, placing more emphasis than ever on the Typhoon.
Preparations for swing-role operations have included the involvement of several Typhoon squadrons in multiple exercises over the last year, with aircraft sent to Malaysia, Oman, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the USA. Most recently, Typhoons also exercised in the UK along with Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighters from the Indian air force.
Among the questions which need answering in the SDSR are those which concern the fate of the RAF’s earliest, Tranche 1 Typhoons. While comparatively young in terms of airframe life, these cannot be upgraded to its planned advanced configuration, and an early retirement from frontline use is expected. What the UK opts to do with such aircraft remains to be seen, with potential options ranging from selling them to nations which require highly-capable air-defence fighters, through using them for adversary training or even the seemingly implausible re-equipping of the Red Arrows aerobatic display team.
For now, the RAF is taking delivery of Tranche 3 production-standard Typhoons – in advance of expected future upgrades which will add new weapons and, potentially from later this decade, also an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar – and is placing them into temporary storage, to spare them from unnecessary fatigue.
RAF officials decline to detail the number of Tranche 3 aircraft which are in storage, but North notes: “This is a 6,000h platform – we are looking to get the most out of it.”
In BAE’s recent half-year financial results statement, the company revealed: “In the six months to 30 June, six Typhoon aircraft were delivered from the UK final assembly facility, of which four were delivered to Saudi Arabia.”
Typhoons will gain new air-to-surface weapons through Project Centurion
Crown Copyright
By mid-year, the RAF had received 129 of its eventual total of 160 Typhoons, and Flightglobal’s Fleets Analyzer database indicates that around 13 of its newest model have been completed so far.
SDSR-watchers will be hoping for answers about the Tranche 1 Typhoon retirement plan and AESA modification, and also any change to the Tornado’s expected departure date. Long-term indications are also anticipated in the unmanned arena, with the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-9 Reaper needing replacement and a potential Future Combat Air Systems risk-reduction activity being conducted in collaboration with France.
But one of the most eagerly-awaited elements of the planning document will be its contents about the F-35B.
Three of the type are already being used by the UK to support initial operational test and evaluation activities in the USA, with a fourth to be accepted during 2016. The MoD has already announced funding to acquire its first 14 operational examples, which should also be handed over from next year.
Initial operational capability with the RAF’s 617 Sqn is planned for the following year at Marham, and the UK’s second unit to be equipped with the STOVL design has already been identified as the Fleet Air Arm’s revived 809 NAS.
With the UK having previously committed to buying at least 48 F-35s but with the US programme of record still listing its interest at 138 of the type, this review could deliver a long-needed answer about how many of the fifth-generation type it needs, and more importantly, how many it can afford. Only once the MoD reveals this answer will the future strength of the UK’s combat air capability take shape.
Source: Flight International
