Royal Air Force (RAF): News

Gov wrote:UK F-35B fighter jets operating from HMS Queen Elizabeth will join Operation Shader in the fight against Daesh.

F-35B Lightning fast jets will be the cutting edge of the Carrier Strike Group’s (CSG21) formidable power in the air.

These are next generation multi-role combat aircraft equipped with advanced sensors, mission systems and stealth technology, enabling them to carry out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tasks.

This will be the first time UK fighter aircraft are embarked on an operational aircraft carrier deployment since 2010, and will be the largest number of F-35Bs ever to sail the seas.

The renowned 617 Squadron RAF (‘The Dambusters’) will operate the jets to provide tangible and impactful support to counter-Daesh operations in Iraq and Syria.

The Russian naval task force deployed to Syria in recent days appears to have stepped up its drills in the eastern Mediterranean. At the same time, a recent video shows that at least some of the Russian participants have been shadowed by F-35B stealth jets operating from the U.K. Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth that’s conducting combat operations in the region, against ISIS targets. The latest Russian maneuvers come as tensions between Moscow and the United Kingdom remain high, after a Royal Navy destroyer sailed in waters close to Russian-occupied Crimea last week, and as large-scale, U.S.-led maneuvers in the Black Sea kick off today.

The latest official video of the Russian deployment reveals that at least some of the three Tu-22M3 Backfire-C bombers and two MiG-31K Foxhound jet fighters armed with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles that deployed to Khmeimim Air Base in Syria’s coastal Latakia province last week are now conducting joint maneuvers with Su-35S Flanker fighters. The latter type is seen flying as an escort, carrying various air-to-air missiles, and operating from the same base. Also evident is at least one Su-34 Fullback strike jet, albeit armed with only a pair of short-range missiles for self-defense. Unlike the Tu-22M3 and MiG-31K, the Su-35s and Su-34s have been seen at the Syrian airbase regularly for years now.

Previously, we have seen Tu-22M3s operating from Syria with a single example of the Kh-22 (AS-4 Kitchen) or improved Kh-32 anti-ship missile, but the video reveals a two-missile loadout. Theoretically, each Tu-22M3 can carry three of these weapons, two under the wings and one under the fuselage, but with a considerable reduction in range, since the fuel load has to be reduced accordingly. Therefore, two missiles are normally the maximum practical load, while one missile provides for a range of almost 1,400 miles. The MiG-31K is seen with its standard load of a single Kinzhal missile carried on the centerline.

These missions also included an A-50 Mainstay airborne early warning and control aircraft, which is seen in the video operating from Khmeimim, as well as over the eastern Mediterranean. This aircraft, which is a familiar presence in Syria, could be coordinating the exercise, as well as keeping an eye on other movements in the air and at sea, such as CSG21 and its F-35Bs.

One brief sequence shows an F-35B flying in a steep bank, apparently filmed from a Russian Navy warship. The distance at which the jet is shadowing the vessel means it’s unclear it was from the Royal Air Force or U.S. Marine Corps, but examples from both services are now onboard HMS Queen Elizabeth.

Finally, there is a sequence in the video from an unspecified Russian Navy warship, allegedly the Admiral Makarov, one of the two Admiral Grigorovich class frigates that are involved in the current drills, the other being Admiral Essen. As well as commands being issued from the bridge, we see the crew racing to battle stations and close-ups of AK-630 multi-barrel gun, though no live-firing is seen. One of these same weapons was used to fire a ‘warning shot’ toward HMS Defender in the Black Sea last week.

The remaining three Russian Navy warships involved in the maneuvers are the Slava class guided-missile cruiser Moskva and the Improved Kilo class submarines Stary Oskol and Rostov-on-Don. All these are from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

Two other Russian assets that have been announced as taking part in the maneuvers have not been seen so far — these are the Il-38 May and Tu-142MK Bear-F long-range anti-submarine aircraft.

The official statement provided by the Russian Ministry of Defense reiterates the fact that the current exercises are focused on defending friendly ships against aerial attacks. The carriage of hypersonic missiles (Kinzhal) is also mentioned but it’s not clear if these were used to replicate hostile attacks on the surface combatants. That would, however, fit in with reports last week of simulated enemy aircraft flying a mock attack against a frigate with anti-ship missiles. Moreover, the defense of surface combatants against targets flying at hypersonic speed — generally taken to mean in excess of five times the speed of sound — is a growing area of concern for navies around the world. For its part, the Kinzhal, which is a converted short-range ballistic missile, is claimed to be able to fly at 10 times the speed of sound.

“Particular attention was paid to countering airplanes, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles of the imaginary enemy,” the latest report explains. The same drills also include ensuring the security of Khmeimim Air Base and the Russian Navy’s logistics hub in the Syrian port of Tartus.

While this is the second time that the Tu-22M3 has been deployed to Syria, the emphasis on the type’s maritime strike mission is noteworthy, especially as it coincides with the high-profile appearance of HMS Queen Elizabeth in the Mediterranean for the first time, as first of its first operational cruise, as part of Carrier Strike Group 21 (CSG21). The MiG-31K and its Kinzhal missile have not been deployed outside of Russian territory before this, and it seems highly likely they are also on hand to practice the anti-shipping mission, too.

We have discussed previously the significant power-projection capability that even irregular deployments of small numbers of Tu-22M3 and MiG-31K aircraft, and their respective missiles, can bring to the Russian outpost in Syria. While the Kh-22/32 and Kinzhal missiles are dual-role, allowing them to be configured to attack targets at sea or on land, the current deployment is stressing maritime missions, and these aircraft provide another way of both protecting Russian Navy ships and submarines operating in the wider region, as well as offering the potential for offensive actions against enemy shipping. All these missiles can also be fitted with nuclear warheads if required.

Now that the runway and its facilities at Khmeimim have been modernized, the airbase is better able to host deployments like this in the future. It could also pave the way to having long-range Tu-95MS Bear and Tu-160 Blackjack strategic missile-carriers operating out of Syria, too.

The fact that the Russian exercise is happening simultaneously with CSG21 being in the Mediterranean is unlikely to have been a simple coincidence. After all, official Russian accounts note that “one of the objectives of the exercises will be to monitor the actions of the [British] aircraft carrier group.”

So far, there does not appear to be any corresponding imagery released by the Royal Navy or U.S. Marine Corps showing their perspective of the Russian maneuvers, but we can be confident that both sides are watching each other closely. The War Zone will keep you updated as the exercise continues to unfold, during a period of notable tensions between Russia and the United Kingdom.

GarryB wrote:Hilarious.... Turkey was not allowed to operate S-400s and F-35s in the same force because of fears the Russians would be able to collect secret data on the aircraft, but the British are happy to fly over Russian ships and give away the same secret data for free...

But then of course F-35s in the Israeli Air Force and the F-22s the US deployed to the region already revealed such information anyway...

MoD announces jobs boost for RAF Lossiemouth


he Ministry of Defence has announced a jobs boost for the north of Scotland with more than 100 new posts being created at RAF Lossiemouth.

The contract, worth more than £230m, is part of the deployment of Poseidon maritime aircraft at the base in Moray.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said he saw it as a benefit of Scotland being part of the UK.

But the Scottish government said the Conservatives had "zero credibility" on defence issues in Scotland.

It said this was because of "deep cuts" the party had imposed on personnel and infrastructure north of the border.

As well as a base for Typhoon fighter jets, RAF Lossiemouth will now be home to a fleet of nine P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol planes.

Mr Wallace said the 106 new roles were part of a training and maintenance contract allied to the deployment of the anti-submarine aircraft.

UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace used the announcement to highlight what he sees as the benefits of Scotland in the Union

He added: "That's another generation of RAF investment into the area."

Mr Wallace also pledged there were more jobs to come as part of a programme that included the opening of the base's new £75m runway last year.

He said: "Defence is not a here today, gone tomorrow. You invest for the long term."

Mr Wallace said the purchase of P-8A aeroplanes and E-7 Wedgetails (surveillance aircraft) brings "20, 30 years of investment".

But he also challenged the case for independence.

Mr Wallace said: "Defence of these isles is much better achieved collectively and together, and the strength of the union is demonstrated by the fact we can play to each others' strengths."

The MoD is a major employer and spends more than £2bn a year in Scotland, much of it on shipbuilding.

But Mr Wallace said an independent Scotland could not expect to get military orders from the rest of the UK.

Speaking to the BBC, he said: "If you look at their economic figures, their deficit is so large I think it would be very, very difficult for an independent Scotland to maintain any armed forces of any type of armed forces of any credible size or capability."

He also raised the question of what would happen to the Faslane nuclear base and an independent Scotland's place in Nato.

In a statement, a spokesman for Scotland's first minister said: "The Tories have zero credibility when it comes to defence issues in Scotland given the deep cuts they have imposed on personnel and infrastructure north of the border.

"An independent Scotland will be more than capable of maintaining conventional forces, but will not waste billions of pounds on nuclear weapons."

Could Britain's Stealth Fighters Go Hypersonic? Should They?

Can an F-35 be turned into a hypersonic aircraft?

News last month that Britain is boosting its hypersonic weapons program didn’t come as a surprise. Many other nations are doing it.

What caught everyone’s attention was that there are plans to rework the jet engines on the 1990s Eurofighter Typhoon—which propel the aircraft to Mach 2—into hypersonic engines that could achieve Mach 5 or faster.

Which naturally led to a question: can existing fourth- and fifth-generation fighters—which operate at speeds of around Mach 2 or less—become Mach 5 speed demons?

The technology in question is the Sabre engine from British firm Reaction Engines. Sabre aims to combine the advantages of both conventional jet engines with rocket engines. Ground tests have shown that demonstrated that the engine is capable of flying faster than Mach 3, according to Defense News.

“SABRE’s unique feature is a precooler which reduces the temperature of the incoming compressed air,” explains British defense site Forces.com. “This means the engine does not need to cope with extreme temperatures which requires special materials.”

“At high altitudes, it is a rocket, but, at lower altitudes, it works like a jet engine - sucking in and compressing air.”

One option that the RAF is considering for development of hypersonic engines is to add pre-cooler technology to the EJ-200 gas turbine engine that currently powers the Typhoon.


Alas, that isn’t the same as sticking a hypersonic engine on an older fighter.

“You shouldn’t read into that we are somehow going to achieve a hypersonic Typhoon,” said Air Chief Marshal Stephen Hillier.

There is more to developing a hypersonic aircraft than sticking a new engine in an old airframe. To turn a fourth- or fifth-generation aircraft, such as the F-16 or F-35, would invoke a variety of airframe, aerodynamic and avionics issues.

Instead, Britain’s new £10 million ($12.2 million) hypersonics program will be used to thrust Britain into the hypersonic race that is currently dominated by the U.S., Russia and China. For example, hypersonic research is expected to bear fruit in engine development for the Tempest, Britain’s planned sixth-generation fighter.


With 80 percent of Western fighters expected to be fourth-generation for the foreseeable future, hypersonic missiles are a way to keep older jets relevant. “We are working with some other people to see whether we can generate a Mach 5 capability in four years,” said Air Vice Marshal Simon Rochelle, chief of air staff capability. “There will be others pursuing higher and fast speeds … but much beyond that speed you start to change the chemical properties, the physical properties and metallic properties within the actual weapon system.”

“Part of the reason for rapidly developing high-speed weapons was to enable those aircraft to maintain their edge," Rochelle said. “There is a challenge and competition now going on at range, at speed, at pace and we have to mobilize ourselves to be ready to take that on.”


In other words, hypersonic engines won’t turn a Typhoon, F-15 or F-22 into a Mach 5 jet. Instead, hypersonic missiles will do the work. It’s the same approach that allows sixty-year-old B-52s to remain formidable weapons, by arming them with smart bombs. The platform remains the same, but the payload is updated as technology advances.

Airbornewolf wrote:@ finty,

you have any word about the crippling issues of manning british ships?.
last i heard your nation could only afford to man skeletal crews on a few ships.

How about stripping the nuclear submarine's in construction for replacements parts to keep the rest running?.

Did britian learn yet of the kill-switches installed in the F-35's? because under no circumstance the U.S wants to meet its own aircraft in combat?.
Or that its engine has been cleared from its self-sealing foam in case of fuel-tank damage?
Because it got too heavy to take-off?. Maybe ask Thales in the Netherlands what they found on their survey's?.
Can an F-35 with clean wings out-turn an external-tank wearing F-16 yet?. Found a way around yet how the F-35 avionics fail in an thunderstorm?.
how much it costs to repair an F-35 stealth coating for the next flight?.
Their limited payload?. As soon you open an weapon door you get painted?.
Serbs pioneered that achievent with blowing an F-117 out of the sky.
How to stop Khybinhy from breaking into your BMS systems?.
you can not stop manually an A.I from breaking in your command systems.

You have seen the Okhotnik-B platforms right?.

I personally do not know you Finty, welcome to the forum anyway;).

But do not believe the media you are fed.
look into russian weaponry if you are interrested in naval warfare.
you will find they pioneered supersonic weaponry a long time ago and know what these are capable of.
i welcome anyone to look with an neutral view into NATO/USSR weaponry.

Take a look at the P-500 basalt for example.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-500_Bazalt
One missile pops its head above the rest to maintain an link to target.
the rest go at high-speed to target below the enemy radar range.
When one gets destroyed, another one rises to get radar contact with the enemy.

these designs are from the 70's. they fly at 2.5 mach on final. an average ship has an radar range of 25 kilometers towards the horizon.
It means most of these missiles will make that distance in less than 28 seconds to your ship when they appear on radar.

Finty wrote:


Thanks Wolf, I'm not a representative of our MOD but I'll try to answer a few questions!

Yes I've heard of the Hunter project, good luck to them.

As for the F35's faults, i try not to dwell on them but it isn't ideal obviously. i think they're up to 800 now I saw today. Hopefully they will be ironed out (eventually) but the F35 has been a flawed project. The aircraft is capable but flawed. For instance you mention the payload, not great at all and hence the use of the new 15EX as a 'bomb truck'. As for stealth, maintaining the coating has been better than on the F22 but it's still not perfect; good luck to Lockheed, they're aiming to drive down hourly operating cost to $35,000!

The reason I joined this forum was to get more info about Russian aviation developments, my interest in which was there years ago but has only been reignited in the last year as I got back into western military aviation and naturally wanted to know what the 'enemy' were up to. One impressive stat for me is the 4,500 km range of the Kh101!

PapaDragon wrote:
I would like to offer my quick observation on this:

During the Cold War the West was led by cadre of politicians who (like them or not) knew how to do their job and very often were war veterans themselves (George Bush for example was WW2 pilot)

But once Cold War ended they were all pretty much universally replaced by cadre of incompetent idiots who never experienced a day of any hardship, who would literally do anything for money (and accept it from anyone) and had no clue how to do their jobs but who still managed to cruise for a long time on accomplishments of those who came before them

But you can't cruise forever and now reality is hitting hard

The RAF is set to axe its eye-in-the-sky sentry planes two years before their replacements will be ready.

The airborne early warning and control system (AWACS) planes allow RAF pilots to detect enemy aircraft and provides situational awareness during operations.

But the E-3D sentry planes are set to be scrapped in December this year despite the fact their replacements are not ready.

The E-7 Wedgetail aircraft is expected to be in service with the RAF in December 2023 and is described by manufacturers Boeing as the 'world's most advanced, capable and reliable AWACS platform'.

Until then, pilots will have to fly blind or rely on NATO's early-warning force, led by Luftwaffe's Maj Gen Jörg Lebert, according to the Sun.

Former armed forces minister Mark Francois, who raised the issue in a written parliamentary question, told the newspaper: 'It is unacceptable the RAF will lose its own eye in the sky for two years.'

'We should not be playing games with the air defence of the United Kingdom under any circumstances.'

The sentry planes, known as eye-in-the-sky, provide all-weather surveillance, command, control, and communications and are used by various air forces around the world.

A review in 2015 had set out plans to retain the E-3D planes but in March 2019, it was announced these would be replaced by the E-7 wedgetail sentry planes.

The Ministry of Defence announced it had awarded the £1.51billion contract to Boeing and initially ordered five E-7 planes, which will be able to detect multiple targets at sea or in the air over a considerable area for long periods of time.

However, in the 'Defence in a competitive age' document which was published in March this year, the MoD confirmed it had reduced the order to three planes.

The document stated: 'We will retire the E 3D Sentry in 2021, as part of the transition to the more modern and more capable fleet of three E 7A Wedgetail in 2023.

'The E 7A will transform our UK Airborne Early Warning and Control capability and the UK's contribution to NATO.'

The MoD said the decision reflects the fact that the aircraft have become increasingly difficult to maintain and costly to operate and that RAF personnel operate within NATO Airborne Early Warning & Control Force.

A spokesman told MailOnline: 'The retirement of the E3-D Sentry will allow reinvestment into our advanced E-7 Wedgetail fleet, which will provide a step-change in capability.

'As we transition between the two platforms, the NATO Airborne Early Warning & Control Force will provide cover if needed, supported by other RAF Intelligence Surveillance & Reconnaissance assets.'

Finty wrote:The gutter press expresses OUTRAGE over the axing of the RAF E-3 Sentry AWACS fleet, due for the chop in December 2021. I'm not sure why the outrage has only just happened, considering the defence review was some months ago. Nevertheless it means another capability holiday for the RAF, albeit only until 2023 so somewhat shorter than that of fixed-wing carrier strike and Maritime Patrol!

On a personal note, I've yet to see a sentry myself, I had a chance but missed it as I was on holiday on the one day my local airport was visited by one