Typhoon Is it 100% British?

[Hot_Charlie]

Yeah I just tried to look for the 250 but I cant see it anywhere but what did catch my eyes is this which im confused about

while Saudi Arabia ordered 72 Typhoons in September 2007 to be delivered in 2008. These will be assembled at BAE Systems' Warton plant in the UK and in Saudi Arabia, and will be some of the aircraft that were originally destined for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as part of its tranche two order

Whats Tranche two this a updated verison of the Typhoon? :think:

Not as such, they will still be F.2 variant. What you may hear though, are people talking about "Blocks" - the F16 is often referred to as an F16 Block "xx".

Tranche 1 aircraft were delivered as Block 1, 2 and 5, Tranche 2 will be delivered as blocks 8, 10, 15 and 20. AFAIK individual airframes are then retrospectively upgraded:

Shamelessly lifted from wiki:

Tranche 1

The Tranche 1 aircraft were produced from 2003 onwards and featured the Typhoon's initial capabilities.

Block 1
Initial Operational Capability, Basic Air Defence Capability
Block 2
Air-to-air capabilities
Block 5
Air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities

Tranche 2

The Tranche 2 aircraft are currently in production

Block 8
New hardware-standard with new Missionscomputer
Block 10
EOC 1, improved DASS, IFF Mode 5, Rangeless ACMI
Air/Air: AIM-120C-5 AMRAAM, IRIS-T digital
Air/Ground: GBU-24, GPS-guided weapons, ALARM, Paveway III & IV, Rafael Litening III
Block 15
EOC 2,
Air/Air: METEOR,
Air/Ground: TAURUS, Storm Shadow, Brimstone
Block 20
EOC 3,

[TSR2]

Cheers for that HC ;-)

[jab]

So basically blocks 8, 10, 15 and 20 will make the Typhoon be able to drop bombs and do Air to Ground stuff as at the moment its Air to Air?

James

[Hot_Charlie]

Yes, as it's widely publicised they'll be taking over from the Harrier force in the 'Stan next year.

[Erick_Cantu]

The Typhoon isn't British, it's Russian, a MiG-21 derivative called the Ye-8 to be exact. ;-) :brick:

[jab]

The Typhoon isn't British, it's Russian, a MiG-21 derivative called the Ye-8 to be exact. ;-) :brick:

What a Strange person


James

[cstorey]

No, the Typhoon is not "British"... it is built by a consortium and a committee, the worst way to build anything!!!!

Tonks :flying:

Well, Tonks, that is a matter of opinion. It is the way virtually all modern aeroplanes flying today are built , including e.g. the Boeing 777 - and including your own of course, the tailplane of which was built by Sud-Est as far as I know

Chris

[Garry Russell]

I think though the VC 10 tailplane was British designed just sub contracted out for construction :think:

But in anycase the Typhoon was always a European fighter from the intial design rather than for any individual country.

Garry