RAF to establish Typhoon "Red Air" Squadron

[Tally-ho]

And to further add excitement and a sense of necessity to this Red Air thingy the article even shows a picture of Top Gun Tom Cruise and his gal from the movie ....

[Trenchard]

Is it likely this unit would be given reserve status? If so then seniority for squadron designation would go bye the bye? Rumours of 19 Sqn returning would hold more credence?

Over to you guys - what do you think.

As for basing - Scampton, Reds retired and the squadron flies 7 typhoon as RAFAT

[markranger]

100sqn surely.

[Thunder]

So it is as we all expected - the retained Tranche 1's will focus on the aggressor role

All expected? I can't remember that being the general consensus on here, one or two people mentioned it and that's it.

From official sources the Tranche 1 a/c will focus on Air Defence freeing up the Tranche 2/3 jets for the Multi Mission role, there was /is no mention of a dedicated adversary squadron and to be honest imo there never will be.

[Viper28]

Makes sense to use the tranche 1 jets as those are by far the least multi role capable jets. The problem I see is the pure operational cost of operating a Typhoon in that role. The 100sqn jets are very heavily used and a typhoon costs severely time more per hour to operate than a hawk. I would have thought new Hawk T2s would, in the long run, be cheaper

[markranger]

Makes sense to use the tranche 1 jets as those are by far the least multi role capable jets. The problem I see is the pure operational cost of operating a Typhoon in that role. The 100sqn jets are very heavily used and a typhoon costs severely time more per hour to operate than a hawk. I would have thought new Hawk T2s would, in the long run, be cheaper

As I mentioned in the Typhoon 2040 thread,You are not going to need a Typhoon to go on say Holbeach to Simulate a GR4 for FAC work etc
A mixed fleet of Hawks and Typhoons ,6 of each would be fine,Typhoon against a Hawk in air combat is not really going to push the front line sqn Typhoon to its limits.makes sense to me.

Mark.

[Gary]

In the build up to the SDSR, Tim Flatman then OC 736 NAS brought this subject up. Back then he said both 736 NAS and 100 Sqn should get some second or third hand F-16 for aggressor training. One article even mentioned RDAF F-16s . More likely they operate some Tutors http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2014/09/f-16-aggressors/

[HP88]

I thought the RAF already "Red Air".
I saw nine taking off from Scampton recently

[somerset]

Bigger picture . . . . . will we get mental paint scheme I.e usaf f16 ?

[markranger]

I was reading in AFM Last night about the Typhoons that deployed to the USA to work with The F22s and French Rafales .
They were going up against F15s and F16s and the Typhoon Pilot said that it was great training to go up against similar types of aircraft in performance as back home they quite often find themselves just playing with 100sqn Hawks,

Bring it on I say,

[the concerned]

If the raf are struggling with dogfighting why not bring back an exercise like nomad

[Tally-ho]

I don't think the RAF is struggling with dogfighting skills, on the contrary, I think the modern day RAF is probably the best Air Force in all of Europe when it comes to dogfighting skills. They can fly against -

- F-18 Hornets from Finland, Switzerland, Spain
- F-16 Falcons from Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Greece, Turkey
- Rafale and Mirage 2000 from France and Greece
- MiG-29 from Poland and Bulgaria
- Gripen from Sweden, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic
- F-15 Eagles from Lakenheath
- Indian AF were here with Sukhoi -30's in 2015
- Red Flag annually in the USA, with all of what is there, the toughest air-to-air in the world

Nah - I am relaxed here where I sit!

[reheat]

ACMI over the North Sea out of Waddo would be nice again, with NATO joining the fun.

[Andy_99]

I don't think the RAF is struggling with dogfighting skills, on the contrary, I think the modern day RAF is probably the best Air Force in all of Europe when it comes to dogfighting skills. They can fly against -

- F-18 Hornets from Finland, Switzerland, Spain
- F-16 Falcons from Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Greece, Turkey
- Rafale and Mirage 2000 from France and Greece
- MiG-29 from Poland and Bulgaria
- Gripen from Sweden, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic
- F-15 Eagles from Lakenheath
- Indian AF were here with Sukhoi -30's in 2015
- Red Flag annually in the USA, with all of what is there, the toughest air-to-air in the world

Nah - I am relaxed here where I sit!

Ah but don't forget the Indians beat the RAF hands down when they were here in 2015......... Apparently anyway

But bring on a fully capable aggressor squadron anyway the more aircraft we have the merrier I say.

Heck go the whole hog & open up a couple of the old bases & get Uncle Sam to bring more aircraft over here to play as well