http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/archive/typhoons-blow-into-langley-29012013
Oh no! Prepare for a blizzard of idiotic and childish “expert” reporting about how the Typhoon was able to “swat the Raptor out of the sky” on a few totally ambiguous occasions. This type of thing is a huge pet peeve of mine. In fact last night a wrote an “extensive” post about the defense journalism “community” and how I am amazed with some of the “expert analysis” I hear day in and day out. Much of it is just regurgitated stories taken off other sites and re-posted as their own “news making” pieces, or even worse, incomplete and less than knowledgeable opinions and conjecture. Last night’s piece that I never hit the publish button on was a pretty brutal in nature, I did not post it after reviewing it for various reasons but I am still mulling it over. I have to be honest with your guys, the defense journalism and commentating world can be a very, very frustrating “choir” to sing in, and often the worst singers who miss the most important notes continuously get the solo roles. Frustrating to say the least.
On the up side to this story I am excited that the RAF’s tip of the spear fighter and the USAF’s tip of the spear fighter are getting literally months to train with each-other. The F-22/F-15 team is a potent pair but the Typhoon, with its blistering kinetic performance and incredible sensor fusion, may just be the yin to the F-22s yang, especially once a proper AESA is fitted in her canard sporting front-end. If everything goes right, both sides will get kills on one another during opposing training and they will decimate any marauding aggressor forces when working together during cooperative training. I cannot emphasis how much I support more flight hours and training opportunities for American and allied combat aviators. I would much rather have the most experienced fighter pilots in the world than an all “5th generation” tactical fighter fleet with pilots corps who are told that they can only be allowed in them to practice once in a while due to costs. In an age of dwindling aircrew flight training hours, increasing flight hour and aircraft sustainment costs and failing economies, exercises like this one are not only bold, they are downright exciting.
If history tells us anything it will probably be sooner than later that the “special relationship” between the US and our UK brothers galvanizes against a common enemy, and it is about time that both the Typhoon and the Raptor fulfill their class leading roles during such a military excursion.
Well said, the Typhoon is an awesome plane.
Ok, now I really want to read the piece you didn’t publish. Hoping you post that one soon!
I am guessing you avoided publishing that post to avoid stepping on the toes of people you are friendly with, but you are doing us all a favor by cutting through the B.S. and providing an educated analysis of the defense industry/department and calling out the people that do not.