combat aircraft

Below left to

right: The P3E

upgrade will mean

the Typhoons

will begin fl ying

with the MBDA

Brimstone 2 direct

fi re weapon.

Crown Copyright

A pair of

Typhoons sits

behind the boom

window of a

KC-10 before

pressing back

into their area of

operations.

USAF/SSgt Trevor

T. McBride

eastern Syria, but there have been

instances where the aircraft have dashed

to tackle a pop-up target in Iraq.

The Typhoon pilot adds, ‘We have a very

robust process in our targeting to make

sure that we do this with the absolute

minimum of collateral damage. You can

have very precise co-ordinates, but there’s

a di erence between precision and

accuracy. If you don’t have an accurate

co-ordinate it’s more appropriate to use

laser guidance. We can generate our own

co-ordinates as well using the laser from

the pod.’ Paveway IV has even been used

to strike moving targets. ‘That moving

target is an example of where you’d use

the laser because the co-ordinates are

changing all the time.’

Coalition partners have reported a

pattern of GPS jamming in theater, which

can a ect the satellite-guided targeting of

the Paveway IVs. This may be a scenario

where a pilot would also switch to

laser-guidance.

Typhoon evolution —

replacing the Tornado

The Typhoon deployment in Cyprus

involves Tranche 2 and 3 jets. In August

the six jets were in Phase 1 Enhancement

(P1E) con guration. Phase 2 Enhancement

(P2E) is being  elded to the front line. The

COMBAT REPORT // OPERATION ‘SHADER’

92 November 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net