KSA: The Last 2 Typhoons Arrive

[Gomig-21]

Very beautiful and powerful birds, I wish they had AESA radars already.. but that should come with Tranch/4, not sure if KSA will still go for Typhoons, but take a look at this:

It has big teeth too

Indeed. Unfortunately for BA-EAP, it now has serious competition with Dassault and the Rafale. For a while the EFT had the edge since Dassault was overpricing the Rafale and just couldn't broker a deal with anyone besides L'armee de L'air (et mere), and even SAAB had better foreign sales with the single engine Gripen than Dassault. But now the flood gates have opened for the Rafale (which comes with the RBE2-AA AESA) and SPECTRA, data fusion etc., so that will certainly put pressure on BA-EAP to upgrade the Typhoon and continue to be competitive. If they move quick enough and get those CFTs adapted, along with the AESA radar, they might have a slight advantage over the Rafale since the CFT would give it the added range and I don't believe Dassault has anything planned for CFTs on the Rafale, which is strange since they do deploy the buddy buddy system and you would think they would've developed CFT's to add more fuel to the providing aircraft. Maybe it's too much weight with 3 drop tanks and a pair of CFTs? I do think that developing TVCs on the Typhoon's EJ200's is a bit too ambitious, considering the proximity of the nozzles, but who knows. Besides, with the maneuverability it already has, I'm not sure it's necessary, TBH.

 

[The SC]

Indeed. Unfortunately for BA-EAP, it now has serious competition with Dassault and the Rafale. For a while the EFT had the edge since Dassault was overpricing the Rafale and just couldn't broker a deal with anyone besides L'armee de L'air (et mere), and even SAAB had better foreign sales with the single engine Gripen than Dassault. But now the flood gates have opened for the Rafale (which comes with the RBE2-AA AESA) and SPECTRA, data fusion etc., so that will certainly put pressure on BA-EAP to upgrade the Typhoon and continue to be competitive. If they move quick enough and get those CFTs adapted, along with the AESA radar, they might have a slight advantage over the Rafale since the CFT would give it the added range and I don't believe Dassault has anything planned for CFTs on the Rafale, which is strange since they do deploy the buddy buddy system and you would think they would've developed CFT's to add more fuel to the providing aircraft. Maybe it's too much weight with 3 drop tanks and a pair of CFTs? I do think that developing TVCs on the Typhoon's EJ200's is a bit too ambitious, considering the proximity of the nozzles, but who knows. Besides, with the maneuverability it already has, I'm not sure it's necessary, TBH.

I think for the TVCs they might go for up and down like the F-22, as for the rest you are right, the only problem is that KSA in order to induct the Rafale, it will need a whole lot of new infrastructures and everything needed to induct a new type of fighters in an airforce.. take the example of Kuwait which is paying a total of more than $10 billion for 24 Typhoons or Qatar's $21 billion for 72 F-15QA//while India refused a 126 Rafale deal from France, with their production line and some ToT++, for something around $20 billion or even when it dropped to $15 billion!
The Eurofighter 2020 will be the second option for KSA after you know...

 

[Gomig-21]

I think for the TVCs they might go for up and down like the F-22, as for the rest you are right, the only problem is that KSA in order to induct the Rafale, it will need a whole lot of new infrastructures and everything needed to induct a new type of fighters in an airforce.. take the example of Kuwait which is paying a total of more than $10 billion for 24 Typhoons or Qatar's $21 billion for 72 F-15QA//while India refused a 126 Rafale deal from France, with their production line and some ToT++, for something around $20 billion or even when it dropped to $15 billion!
The Eurofighter 2020 will be the second option for KSA after you know...

Absolutely no need for Saudiya to even think of the Rafale at this point. The EFT is exceptional.
If the 'first option' comes to fruition, you can rub it into a lot of people's faces, SC.

 

[Saif al-Arab]

 

[CT-9914 "Snoop"]

they have misslels they fire on the oil area its inaugh

Not really easy to fire them in the first place. Iran doesn't have a border with KSA, it will have to cross into Iraqi airspace or launch attacks from above the Gulf, either way they will have to encounter US air defence which won't hesitate to protect an ally.

 

[bafxet]

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[mike2000 is back]

That's some badass video. Typhoon in all its glory.

 

[mike2000 is back]

Typhoon , a tried and tested fighter jet in Iraq and Syria in battle against ISIS and other enemy forces.

RAF Typhoon preparing for take off in RAF air-base in Cyprus.

A RAF Typhoon in Iraq

A dirty fully armed RAF Typhoon refuelling in Iraq against ISIS targets.

RAF Typhoon in Syria.

 

[Gomig-21]

Nice video. The pilot of the F-15 @3:17 seems like a wild man. I like the sticker on the back of his helmet and that F-22-style take-off he did. Get off the ground and raise the gear and just cruise 15+/- meters off the runway for a few seconds and then pull up. Too bad it's in slow motion, but it's still good.

Some precision formation flying, too. Very impressive. It looked like a drill of some type that involved a ground attack mission with an air to air escort mission (the former in the Typhoons and the latter in the F-15C's were most likely the escorts.) Then the Huey at the end was getting airborne in a standby role in case it needed to perform a possible SAR (search and rescue), at least that's what it appeared to look like to me. One of many types of very cool exercises and fun to watch.

 

[CHI RULES]

According to Eurofighter's website, not yet. Kuwait is to procure ~30 Tranch 3 aircraft with deliveries set to start from 2019.


It's been around 30 years since Iran's air force saw combat. Most of their aircraft are outdated and their domestic upgrades and aircraft aren't proven in air-to-air combat. SAAF has a clear superiority. The only comparable fighters Iran has to put up are MiG-29's ; which won't be very effective since they're basic models (1983), and F-14's. The upgrades to there F-14's seem to be impressive but then again Iranian official statements aren't very reliable and the F-14's radar is also a disadvantage; it can be detected easily and it shouldn't be able to go against Typhoon's ECM. Also, they have around 20 of each type so it will be likely that a more numerous aircraft like the F-4 will be the backbone of their air arm in a combat situation, and well the F-4 in combat in the 21st century against one of the best trained air forces in the region seems like a joke. That being said, Iran shouldn't pose much of a threat to Israel either. Saudi Arabia on the other hand....

Certainly Iran do not have strong air force but their SAM/Radars are updated and if not superior almost equal to that of Chinese/Russians.

Further no one knows true capabilities of their own developed fighter jets/ AAMs. We should not forget that old Migs of Vietnam even did sufficient damage to US jets.

Iran is certainly not at par yet has much capability to counter fairly large number of opposing jets by it's combined Ad resources. At least on paper Iran has much better SAM/Radar network than Pak.

 

[CT-9914 "Snoop"]

Certainly Iran do not have strong air force but their SAM/Radars are updated and if not superior almost equal to that of Chinese/Russians.

Further no one knows true capabilities of their own developed fighter jets/ AAMs. We should not forget that old Migs of Vietnam even did sufficient damage to US jets.

Iran is certainly not at par yet has much capability to counter fairly large number of opposing jets by it's combined Ad resources. At least on paper Iran has much better SAM/Radar network than Pak.

I was only considering air forces in my statement. Still, I wouldn't completely agree with you here. Iran has some modern Russian and China supplied SAM systems but it still operates large number of 1960's/70's equipment, MIM-23 and SA-6 for example and also a large number of domestically upgraded and produced systems, the capabilities of which cannot be verified since the only source on these is Iran itself.

RSAF's F-15E's have modern ECM's that should prove adequate against Iranian air defence. The Tornadoes on the other hand have Sky Shadow ECM pods that were developed in the early 80's, these might prove incapable against more modern air defence systems of Iran.

Vietnamese MiG's proved a menace to US aircraft due to flaws in aircraft and weapon design and pilot training. In the 60's the US shifted towards air-to-air missiles so much so that they neglected the use of guns on their aircraft. Also, the back bone of the US air forces in Vietnam was the F-4 which was not meant for dogfights. It was a heavy weight interceptor and their pilots were trained as such. Lessons learned from Vietnam proved invaluable in air-to-air combat training.

RSAF on the other hand has top of the line F-15's and Eurofighters which do not share the flaws of the F-4's ; they have more reliable weapon systems, are more manoeuvrable and have better trained pilots. Quite simply, Iranian pilots don't stand a chance against RSAF.

And well no battle plan survives contact with the enemy so it comes down to experience and instinct during combat and that depends on training. Now without a doubt Saudi Arabia has better trained pilots.