Robert Courts
Re:
Still flying high
Date:
2 May 2000
SIR - Whilst I strongly agree that the decision to drop the RAF's new Typhoon's gun system is short-sighted and illogical, ignoring as it does the experience of the Harrier, Phantom and recent wars, it is respectfully submitted that to damn the entire project as a "monster" is equally blinkered [Britain scraps Eurofighter gun to save money, 1 May 2000].
The Typhoon is a first-class combat aircraft, which does have (contrary to the inference in your editorial), the ability to operate from rough, local airfields; an airborne time of six seconds means that it only requires a reasonable landing strip surface. If this is not available, then the Harrier, or its replacement, the JSF, should fill the breach.
The fact that the Eurofighter was designed with a Cold War scenario in mind does not mean that it is now obsolete; many of the airforces that Britain will be up against in the next century still fly MIGS (e.g. Iraq, Yugoslavia) and the dogfighting capability of the Typhoon means that we will at least be able to provide some air cover for our bombers in future.
In an article in 1998, this newspaper reported that RAF pilots, ebbing away to commercial airlines, complained that we have a third-world air force, and that Britain was no longer able to defend herself from air attack [RAF pilots bale out to join the airlines, 28 May 2000]. It is surely the case that this much maligned short-range dogfighter will, if nothing else, help to remedy this defect.
The Typhoon project should be held up as an example of what can be achieved by co-operation, not amalgamation, between the European states, a theme which this newspaper is keen to stress.
The bottom line is that, despite the political undercurrents and short-sighted gun-cuts, the RAF is still getting a first-class combat aircraft, which will serve well for many years to come.
