complete Typhoon Centurion t — P2E
and P3E — will give Typhoon the full
suite of capabilities including the MBDA
Meteor missile, Storm Shadow cruise
missile and Brimstone 2, and will provide
a seamless transition from the Tornado by
the end of the year. Indeed, the next
squadron rotation is expected to be with
P2E-standard jets.
The deployed squadron is presently
ying two waves in each 24-hour period,
one day and one day-to-night. At the
time of CA’s visit it had logged some
299 sorties. One engineer said, We
have almost 99 per cent serviceability.
We normally have ve aircraft available
and one in the hangar and we
haven’t missed a single mission due
to engineering.’Referring to the previous tactic of ying
mixed pairs of a Typhoon with a Tornado,
Dickens says, ‘We have done that in the
past and if there was a serviceability issue
— for instance, one of the Tornados breaks
and there isn’t a spare aircraft — we’ll put
a Typhoon with a Tornado. You’ll be aware
that we did this in Libya. The two aircraft
complement one another very well.’End game
With IS forces dug in for a last stand, the
clear coalition aim is for the Iraqi forces
to be able to manage their own national
security. ‘Our mission is to defeat Daesh
and to stop terrorism being exported
back to the UK’, comments Dickens. ‘I
don’t want it to escalate into something
else’. He adds that the reduced kineticactivity re ects a winning campaign.
‘Compared to the intense ghting around
Mosul, the kinetic activity has reduced,
but over the course of the campaign the
RAF has employed 1,700 separate strikes
[300 in Syria, 1400 in Iraq].’
Dickens calls IS, ‘probably the most
despicable group I have ever seen’. He
continues, ‘They are trying to mass and
do terrorist-type acts, just to demonstrate
that they still can, so we are looking to
target those networks and stop their
capacity for violence. The challenge we
have is being able to identify who is
Daesh and who is the civilian population,
and that’s why that stack of aircraft is
there, to help us to build up the picture of
what is going on... We are down to the last
few villages.’Left: Even while
taking fuel on
the tanker, the
Typhoon pilots are
staying abreast of
the air picture and
receiving updates
via Link-16.
Crown Copyright
Below: As the
sun sets at RAF
Akrotiri a Typhoon
pilot taxis out
for an evening
mission.
Crown Copyright
The standard Typhoon fi t currently
includes four Raytheon Paveway
IV bombs. Jamie Hunterhttp://www.combataircraft.net // November 2018 93