Typhoon into storage

[dubmasteruk]

The first operational Typhoon arrived at Shawbury for Storage on Monday 23rd late on in the afternoon.

ZJ936/QO-C 'Typhoon17'

Noted outside hangar 14 on the 24th

[milky_01]

ZJ932/DB is the second Typhoon to go to Shawbury for store.

[Mike]

I thought that ZJ931 was DA, Kev?

[dubmasteruk]

ZJ932/DB arrived as Typhoon??' today for storage. Callsign reported as Typhoon67 leaving Coningsby and Typhoon10 arriving Shawbury.

[phantom6]

That,s a shame sat in this aircraft at Coningsby in 2007 with my own tour organized by Matt who was 11sq groundcrew at the time

[twamoran]

The first operational Typhoon arrived at Shawbury for Storage on Monday 23rd late on in the afternoon.

ZJ936/QO-C 'Typhoon17'

Noted outside hangar 14 on the 24th

Can we therefore assume that these Typhoons have flown their last? My guess is that if they're going to Shawbury (rather than the Coningsby sustainment fleet) they'll be stripped for parts and pulled out for scrapping in around 20 years?!

[kstater94]

I would not go so far to assume that

There are to be two squadrons stood up as strictly QRA squadrons plus (if I recall correctly) an adversary squadron which will be equipped with Tranche 1 Typhoons.

Most of the these airframes will probably be drawn from the airframes currently being sent to Shawbury

Cheers
John

[jetnoise]

AFAIK, the only Tranche 1 jets due to be (scrapped are the twin-stickers. As others have said, the single stickers will be retained to support the two new air defence squadrons.
Although there are relatively few Tranche 2 two seaters, the demand for them is much less now that pilot training will contain a greater amount of synthetic (i.e. simulator based) training than before. (There aren't any RAF Tranche 3 twin stickers)
If the Govt / MoD have any sense (debateable?) then the plan should be to keep as many of the Tranche 1 single seaters as possible.
But who knows - I suppose it depends on the cost of long term storage and space at Shawbury, or even the assumptions about how many sets of spares to be recovered through a Reduce-to-Produce scheme as for Tornado, to support this new TyTAN deal with BAE Systems.
Only time will tell.

[twamoran]

I would not go so far to assume that

There are to be two squadrons stood up as strictly QRA squadrons plus (if I recall correctly) an adversary squadron which will be equipped with Tranche 1 Typhoons.

Most of the these airframes will probably be drawn from the airframes currently being sent to Shawbury

Cheers
John

Thanks John, and sorry for my delayed response. It's good to know most of these jets will likely fly again! So, to be clear, does that mean 2x QRA squadrons plus one aggressor squadron, each equipped with Tranche 1 Typhoons? I would definitely welcome such a move (and find the whole idea quite exciting) but do we have enough Tranche 1 Typhoons (single seaters) to equip three squadrons, or would the jets be pooled for use as needed?

[twamoran]

AFAIK, the only Tranche 1 jets due to be (scrapped are the twin-stickers. As others have said, the single stickers will be retained to support the two new air defence squadrons.
Although there are relatively few Tranche 2 two seaters, the demand for them is much less now that pilot training will contain a greater amount of synthetic (i.e. simulator based) training than before. (There aren't any RAF Tranche 3 twin stickers)
If the Govt / MoD have any sense (debateable?) then the plan should be to keep as many of the Tranche 1 single seaters as possible.
But who knows - I suppose it depends on the cost of long term storage and space at Shawbury, or even the assumptions about how many sets of spares to be recovered through a Reduce-to-Produce scheme as for Tornado, to support this new TyTAN deal with BAE Systems.
Only time will tell.

Thanks jetnoise and again sorry for my delayed response. Retaining the bulk of the Tranche 1 single seaters would definitely seem to make sense (though as you say - debatable in terms of govt/MOD sense!). I expect the Tranche 1 trainers have probably been fairly well used over the last decade or so, but their retirement still seems premature to me. Even the majority of the early Tornado GR1s (as far as I know) managed around 20 years, but I guess if they can yield useful parts and costs can be saved through synthetic training aids, scrapping them might make sense I wonder if a small number would be kept on for continued training (despite the Tranche 2 twin stickers and the simulators), especially since they are perfectly capable of doing the same job as a Tranche 1 fighter should the need arise. Probably not much point though if there are enough single seaters to meet the demand. I have no idea what condition the less used hangars at Lossiemouth are in, but there seems to be enough hangar space there to keep a number of them in storage for possible future use if Shawbury is full to capacity - and the location would be convenient for the rest of the fleet. I guess we'll have to see what happens!

[rh226]

I see from Milky's blogsite that Typhoon ZJ911/QO-Z departed from Coningsby to here for storage on 24th August

[kstater94]

I would not go so far to assume that

There are to be two squadrons stood up as strictly QRA squadrons plus (if I recall correctly) an adversary squadron which will be equipped with Tranche 1 Typhoons.

Most of the these airframes will probably be drawn from the airframes currently being sent to Shawbury

Cheers
John

Thanks John, and sorry for my delayed response. It's good to know most of these jets will likely fly again! So, to be clear, does that mean 2x QRA squadrons plus one aggressor squadron, each equipped with Tranche 1 Typhoons? I would definitely welcome such a move (and find the whole idea quite exciting) but do we have enough Tranche 1 Typhoons (single seaters) to equip three squadrons, or would the jets be pooled for use as needed?

I too must apologize for my delayed response!

Kind of tying in with jetnoise, I think a few T3s will be scrapped, but, given that the FGR4s are going to the QRA squadrons, would it be too much of a stretch to field the possibility of the Aggressor aircraft being T3s?

Just a thought

Cheers!
John

[Thunder]

Was there ever any official statement saying that a dedicated "Aggressor" Squadron was going to stand up? As far as I'm aware there wasn't, and this idea ballooned out of an interview with an RAF officer(in AFM) saying that a high end fighter operating in the role would be advantageous to training requirements.

[kstater94]

Was there ever any official statement saying that a dedicated "Aggressor" Squadron was going to stand up? As far as I'm aware there wasn't, and this idea ballooned out of an interview with an RAF officer(in AFM) saying that a high end fighter operating in the role would be advantageous to training requirements.

I read it on the internet... that's almost 100% accurate isn't it??