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The revolution in the global fighter market started with good news and bad news at the end of 2013. The good news was for Saab: Brazil’s selection of the JAS 39E/FGripen as its future fighter. This unlocked the Swedish government’s support, which was contingent on an international partner. The bad news was the United Arab Emirates’ dismissal of the Eurofighter Typhoon.
For Saab, this was the start of hard work on what is largely a new aircraft—heavier and more powerful than the C/D version, with new radar, processing and display hardware and an advanced electronic warfare system.
The UAE’s message to Eurofighter may have been a stern warning rather than a condemnation: “Don’t come back until you’re qualified—Rafale is flying with things you’re still talking about.” The message was received as the Royal Air Force belatedly realized that the Tornado was going to be retired in 2018, taking unique and vital capabilities with it, and that the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter would be nowhere near ready to replace it.
MORE FIGHTER NEWS FROM THE DUBAI AIRSHOW
Typhoon Upgrades Could Win Export Orders
Eurofighter’s fractious community of government sponsors and service customers (two of them also JSF partners, with divided budgets, if not loyalties) then started to make decisions, putting badly needed improvements on a firm schedule—the Meteor air-to-air missile, Storm Shadow cruise missile, Brimstone close-support weapon—and funding development of an active electronically scanned array (Aesa) radar, for which Kuwait should be the launch customer. There is even a ten-year development roadmap, via the Phase 4 Enhancement (P4E) program; something the Rafale has had, and the Typhoon has lacked, since the early 2000s.
Then, in 2015, Dassault gained new customers in Egypt and Qatar, while trading a shaky 126-aircraft co-production deal in India for 36 somewhat firmer sales. Good news to a point for Dassault, although it puts the rest of India’s need to replace hundreds of aging MiGs back in play.
In the U.S., Boeing has unveiled plans to rebuild F-15C/D Eagles with up to 16 air-to-air missiles, conformal fuel tanks and advanced EW. The Navy could acquire as few as 12 F-35Cs per year in the 2020s, which would make the service dependent on life-extension programs for the Super Hornet to fill its carrier decks. The service is trying to eke out new production as long as possible to make that complex effort less risky.
A customer starting a new competition today is spoilt for choice. At the upper end of the European offerings, the Typhoon and Rafale are superficially similar, but the former excels in acceleration, supersonic maneuverability and altitude while the latter still leads in range and diversity of weapons. When it comes to “swing-role” performance—the ability to carry a respectable air-to-air and air-to-ground load at the same time—they outpoint the Gripen, but (if you believe the Swiss air force) the latter’s operating costs are half that of its twin-engine rivals.
This will lead to some lively competitions in F-35 no-go areas such as much of Asia and the Middle East. But the battle will spill across that boundary. Belgium is looking at F-35, Rafale and Gripen, and Canada’s Liberal party has pledged to open its 65-aircraft requirement to competition after the new government ditched the F-35.
More than ever, the argument that the F-35 is a “fifth-generation” airplane that offers a quantum leap over its rivals looks simplistic. It’s certainly different – more of a strike aircraft, less of a classic fighter – and it uses stealth technology in lieu of an automated wideband radio-frequency (RF) jamming suite. It’s designed to penetrate directly to highly defended targets where other aircraft launch expensive cruise missiles.
But the European aircraft are gaining weapons and sensor capabilities that are not available in the initial-service-standard Block 3F JSF: Meteor, infrared search and track, gallium-nitride-based electronic warfare systems, multispectral and hyperspectral targeting pods and long-range reconnaissance are among them. Some but not all may appear in Block 4, but those decisions are ahead of us.
There’s been a change in the discussion about relative costs. Rafale and Typhoon have had a reputation for being expensive to buy and to operate – but in a rule-based competition in Korea, the money that would have bought 60 Typhoons paid for 40 JSFs. The Netherlands had to reduce its JSF buy from 85 to 37 aircraft, and Norway has considered cuts to its 56-aircraft planned force because of projected operating costs.
The JSF program, unsurprisingly, is working hard on its cost-per-flight-hour problem, and on fixing technological gaps, such as its elderly single-band electro-optical sensor, in Block 4. Competition is something that should benefit everyone.
Fighter Buyers are Spoilt for Choice | Dubai Air Show 2015 content from Aviation Week
For Saab, this was the start of hard work on what is largely a new aircraft—heavier and more powerful than the C/D version, with new radar, processing and display hardware and an advanced electronic warfare system.
The UAE’s message to Eurofighter may have been a stern warning rather than a condemnation: “Don’t come back until you’re qualified—Rafale is flying with things you’re still talking about.” The message was received as the Royal Air Force belatedly realized that the Tornado was going to be retired in 2018, taking unique and vital capabilities with it, and that the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter would be nowhere near ready to replace it.
MORE FIGHTER NEWS FROM THE DUBAI AIRSHOW
Typhoon Upgrades Could Win Export Orders
Eurofighter’s fractious community of government sponsors and service customers (two of them also JSF partners, with divided budgets, if not loyalties) then started to make decisions, putting badly needed improvements on a firm schedule—the Meteor air-to-air missile, Storm Shadow cruise missile, Brimstone close-support weapon—and funding development of an active electronically scanned array (Aesa) radar, for which Kuwait should be the launch customer. There is even a ten-year development roadmap, via the Phase 4 Enhancement (P4E) program; something the Rafale has had, and the Typhoon has lacked, since the early 2000s.
Then, in 2015, Dassault gained new customers in Egypt and Qatar, while trading a shaky 126-aircraft co-production deal in India for 36 somewhat firmer sales. Good news to a point for Dassault, although it puts the rest of India’s need to replace hundreds of aging MiGs back in play.
In the U.S., Boeing has unveiled plans to rebuild F-15C/D Eagles with up to 16 air-to-air missiles, conformal fuel tanks and advanced EW. The Navy could acquire as few as 12 F-35Cs per year in the 2020s, which would make the service dependent on life-extension programs for the Super Hornet to fill its carrier decks. The service is trying to eke out new production as long as possible to make that complex effort less risky.
A customer starting a new competition today is spoilt for choice. At the upper end of the European offerings, the Typhoon and Rafale are superficially similar, but the former excels in acceleration, supersonic maneuverability and altitude while the latter still leads in range and diversity of weapons. When it comes to “swing-role” performance—the ability to carry a respectable air-to-air and air-to-ground load at the same time—they outpoint the Gripen, but (if you believe the Swiss air force) the latter’s operating costs are half that of its twin-engine rivals.
This will lead to some lively competitions in F-35 no-go areas such as much of Asia and the Middle East. But the battle will spill across that boundary. Belgium is looking at F-35, Rafale and Gripen, and Canada’s Liberal party has pledged to open its 65-aircraft requirement to competition after the new government ditched the F-35.
More than ever, the argument that the F-35 is a “fifth-generation” airplane that offers a quantum leap over its rivals looks simplistic. It’s certainly different – more of a strike aircraft, less of a classic fighter – and it uses stealth technology in lieu of an automated wideband radio-frequency (RF) jamming suite. It’s designed to penetrate directly to highly defended targets where other aircraft launch expensive cruise missiles.
But the European aircraft are gaining weapons and sensor capabilities that are not available in the initial-service-standard Block 3F JSF: Meteor, infrared search and track, gallium-nitride-based electronic warfare systems, multispectral and hyperspectral targeting pods and long-range reconnaissance are among them. Some but not all may appear in Block 4, but those decisions are ahead of us.
There’s been a change in the discussion about relative costs. Rafale and Typhoon have had a reputation for being expensive to buy and to operate – but in a rule-based competition in Korea, the money that would have bought 60 Typhoons paid for 40 JSFs. The Netherlands had to reduce its JSF buy from 85 to 37 aircraft, and Norway has considered cuts to its 56-aircraft planned force because of projected operating costs.
The JSF program, unsurprisingly, is working hard on its cost-per-flight-hour problem, and on fixing technological gaps, such as its elderly single-band electro-optical sensor, in Block 4. Competition is something that should benefit everyone.
Fighter Buyers are Spoilt for Choice | Dubai Air Show 2015 content from Aviation Week
