Thank you Typhoons
Thread Starter
Thank you Typhoons
Just been treated to a half hour display by 2 Typhoons over Devon from 14:30 to 1500, presumably making the life of some poor helicopter pilot (heard but seen) a misery.
Lots of tight turns and bags of noise. Good show!
Lots of tight turns and bags of noise. Good show!
A similar half-hour outside my sleepy Cumbian seaside town a couple of months ago; 2v2 Chinooks against Typhoons. Gallons of F-34 being converted into noise and blade-slap. Best display I've seen in years, and all from my bedroom window.
And it was free! (Yes, I know .....)!
And it was free! (Yes, I know .....)!
Although I have a fair idea how things would've turned out in a real bunfight, I smile when I remember how a call of "snapshot... tracking..." from our M134-laden Chinook went down with the Tonka folk. Yes, yes - I know how long our chaff'n'flare package would've lasted.
Perhaps they could head over to W Devon for the next round, Ninth?
Perhaps they could head over to W Devon for the next round, Ninth?
Thread Starter
Although I have a fair idea how things would've turned out in a real bunfight, I smile when I remember how a call of "snapshot... tracking..." from our M134-laden Chinook went down with the Tonka folk. Yes, yes - I know how long our chaff'n'flare package would've lasted.
Perhaps they could head over to W Devon for the next round, Ninth?
Perhaps they could head over to W Devon for the next round, Ninth?
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Avoid imitations
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We used to do the occasional, organised “fighter affiliation” Puma v Harriers in Devon (plus lots of unofficial sessions in Germany in the 1980s). We often had to direct jet pilots where we were because they couldn’t actually find us, even when we could easily see them. Many of the ones we flew against later said that for real, if we had decent armament that allowed us to shoot back (and unfortunately we didn’t, and couldn’t), they would tend to give helicopters a rather wide berth, rather than “tipping in” and having a go, because it wasn’t worth the risk.
The combination of modern look-down radars, high optical zoom targeting pods with IR search and track functions, and helmet mounted cueing systems allowing high off-boresight IR missile shots have shifted the dial on RW survivability against fighters since the 1980s. (As it has with other low and slow targets including Iranian drones.) It sounds like the Typhoons agreed to play nicely for affiliation purposes on this occasion!
Easy, It’s definitely shifted the needle, but you’d be surprised how often I was able to breeze past a pair of Typhoons without them gaining a Tally, let alone a shot. Every affil sortie has to take into account the training needs of all parties - I was never training against the jet itself, but against a threat actor it was emulating with artificial weapon and performance criteria applied. If the jet wanted to deploy its own criteria ‘in house’ that was fine - and sometimes scary! Often to get the ‘trade’, we had to play ‘dumb’ for the first half of a trip to simulate a non-trained or equipped helo, just so the FJ crew could tick their boxes for F3/F2/VID training, and then we’d have a few serials for our benefit at the end.
Megan, I had a glorious hour or so with a pair of F-15Es over the North Sea one afternoon (Affil brief in the Burger King at LKH….). I trashed all the BVR/Heater shots (they were not coming down to play with guns….) so the last presentation was slightly wider and resulted in a simulated released of 4x 2000lb bombs. ‘We couldn’t go home without killing you - with 4 bombs you were in the frag envelope somewhere!’. Happy days….
Megan, I had a glorious hour or so with a pair of F-15Es over the North Sea one afternoon (Affil brief in the Burger King at LKH….). I trashed all the BVR/Heater shots (they were not coming down to play with guns….) so the last presentation was slightly wider and resulted in a simulated released of 4x 2000lb bombs. ‘We couldn’t go home without killing you - with 4 bombs you were in the frag envelope somewhere!’. Happy days….
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