combat aircraft

The rotating ‘Shader’ commitment must

 t in alongside a host of other domestic

and international pulls for the ‘stretched’

Typhoon force. A Typhoon pilot deployed

to Akrotiri in August told Combat Aircraft,

‘Operation ‘Shader’ for us is a four-month

rotation, so I came out with the advance

party in May.’ With no simulator facilities

on base, the pilots must head home

fairly regularly in order to stay current in

emergency procedures. Typically there

are nine Typhoon pilots, plus operations

sta and about 70 engineers here at any

given time.

A pilot explained how the Typhoon’s

suite of sensors provides valuable

situational awareness. ‘In the MERV,

Daesh has been shrunk down to a

very small area. There’s now a serious

concentration of aircraft all in quite a

small piece of space, so the radar is key

— particularly coming o refueling and

getting back into your airspace, seeing

who’s in there, making sure you’re safely

separated from them. That’s one of our

biggest concerns at the moment.’

Once on task the e ectiveness of the

command and control assets on the

Link-16 network means that air assets

operating at range from home station

TYPHOON

IN THE

COCKPIT

RAF Typhoon pilots on Operation

‘Shader’ typically run the Captor-M

radar and/or attack page on the left-

hand multi-function display (MFD).

The center display is usually used for a

pilot awareness — a moving map and

tactical information including Link-16,

showing where everybody is. Coalition

command and control manages the

recognized air picture (RAP) and

tasking, re-tasking of the various

platforms. A Typhoon pilot comments,

‘Some of the assets out there switch o

the command and control [C2] agency

once they go into their designated task.

We remain on C2 because by listening

we build our awareness, such as our

tanker being re-positioned. That’s when

I know I will need to run a di erent fuel

plan if I’m going to get to that tanker.’

Imagery from the Litening III

targeting pod or defensive aids sub-

system (DASS) is generally displayed on

the right-hand MFD.

A lot of the current mission involves

working with joint terminal attack

controllers (JTACs) on the ground.

The Typhoons essentially act as non-

traditional intelligence, surveillance and

reconnaissance (NTISR) platforms that

can swing into a kinetic role.

Despite the heavy Operation ‘Shader’

load and the heat of the summer

months at Akrotiri, Typhoons take o

in dry power and can expect to be

on task with about an hour and 20

minutes between the usual three to

four tanker brackets. The EJ200 engines

draw universal praise and are generally

regarded as being gold-standard —

one engineer called them ‘bulletproof ’.

Referring to the sensor fusion, the pilot

adds, ‘You’re just getting a clean picture,

which is what you want. It makes it

easier to process and understand what’s

going on around you to make valid

tactical decisions at the right time.’ The

Typhoon pilot Combat Aircraft spoke

to particularly praised the helmet-

mounted sighting system (HMSS) and

the defensive aids sub-system (DASS),

calling the latter, ‘a really excellent bit

of kit.’ He added, ‘Co-ordination of the

countermeasures [system] is something

that takes a lot of work behind the

scenes, but we have a great team back

at Coningsby — that’s a real strength of

the aircraft.’

In the busy airspace in the mid-

Euphrates, the HMSS gives the pilot the

ability to quickly cue the sensors to a

contact or have the sensors help get

eyes onto a track quickly, thus helping

to manage the formation. ‘Straight

away I can see where they are and

position the jet to bring the sensors

to bear. Likewise if I see something of

interest on the ground, an explosion —

something’s obviously happened that

we’re going to be interested in — I can

rapidly move the sensor to it in a matter

of seconds.

‘The only thing we don’t have is NVGs

[night vision goggles] with the helmet,

so we only  y with it during the day.’ At

night, the Typhoon pilots use an older

generation Mk4 helmet and NVGs. ‘I’ve

previously  own Tornado and F/A-18

in the [US] Marine Corps on exchange

and HMSS is a fantastic system. Striker

II [a night-capable version] would give

me the night vision capability and

the ability to see where the sensor is

looking. It’s an obvious next step.’

Pilots deploying to Akrotiri have to

be limited combat-ready and to have

completed a ‘Shader’ work-up covering

all the TTPs. Once in theater they

generally  y every other day. They do

so with sandwiches, chocolate bars and

water, and a Glock pistol on board.

I think it’s worth

remembering the speed of

these fast jets. Although we may be

operating in one part of Syria in an

hour we can be 500 miles away

Gp Capt Chas Dickens

Above: The

Typhoons

typically operate

in pairs and will

fl ow back and

forth to the tanker

to stay up on fuel.

Crown Copyright

COMBAT REPORT // OPERATION ‘SHADER’

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