DELIVERING ON OPERATIONS
The Typhoon Force will shortly receive a boost in the form of the Meteor missile The Mount Pleasant Airfield on the Falkland Islands hosts a flight of Typhoons that patrol the skies over British territories in the region (PHOTO: CPL ASHLEY KEATES RAF/ CROWN COPYRIGHT/MOD)
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deliver new weaponry in attacks against Daesh terrorists in Syria. In September 2017, the ITAR-TASS Russian News Agency reported that Russian Defence Ministry officials had confirmed that Bears had fired Kh-101 long-range cruise missiles at “terrorists’ command centres, areas of concentration of militants and their weapons, as well as munitions depots”, showing how the aircraft remains a capable asset to Russian defence planners. Demonstrating their strategic reach, the officials also revealed that the Kh-101 cruise missiles were delivered by Tu-95MS Bears that “took off from Engels airfield in Russia”. The other main task for the Typhoon QRA force is to defend against ‘non-state actors’, namely terrorists who might take control of a civilian aircraft with evil intent. Any civilian aircraft that fails to follow its prescribed flightpath or contact air traffic controllers is likely to find a Typhoon sliding into formation off its wingtip. Almost invariably, the cause of a silent aircraft is a technical glitch, but the policy of ‘better safe than sorry’ prevails.
AIR POWER 2018 BUILDING THE NEXT GENERATION AIR FORCE
OVERSEAS QRA The UK’s five-squadron Typhoon force is scheduled to be increased by two further squadrons in the 2018-19 timeframe, together with a third, UK-Qatari joint unit, which has been designated 12 (B) Squadron. This will provide training for the Gulf state’s pilots as they prepare to receive 24 Typhoons from 2022 and will also provide aerial security for Qatar during the 2020 World Cup tournament there. As part of the Typhoon Force’s roster of duties, foreign deployments are becoming increasingly common, says Air Cdre Chappell. Last year saw four aircraft spending four months in Romania: “We were there to assist Romania in the delivery of what they call QRA, but we weren’t actually doing QRA for them,” he specifies. A variety of training missions was carried out, including some involving other visiting air forces. RAF Typhoons also deploy to the Baltics on NATO air patrol duties. A further four Typhoons provide QRA cover for the Falkland Islands from the Mount Pleasant Airfield, 35 miles south-west of Port Stanley. Should the QRA mission ever become a live operation against a verified threat, the Typhoon Force will shortly receive a boost in the form of the MBDA Meteor beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile, which will provide the aircraft with a major increase in capability, compared to its predecessor. Not only will Meteor allow Typhoon to engage targets at substantially greater ranges than today, it has a particularly large ‘no-escape zone’ – the area of warhead lethality. That, together with a rolling programme of technical updates, will help the Typhoons keep the skies around the UK safe for years to come.