Royal Air Force: the way to the bottom
News is good and bad
Recently, the Daily Mail published Joel Adams material on the disastrous state of the Royal Air Force, including the reduction of the fleet of combat aircraft. More precisely, fighter and strike aviation (now these two concepts in RAF have become a single whole - there are no more percussion machines). First telling the seed "good news"that for the first time RAF carried out combat missions against terrorists of the ISIL banned in Russia in Syria and Iraq on new F-35 aircraft, performing as many 14 sorties in 10 days.
And then the author goes to the bad news. He reports that the favorite pilots, but already completely outdated Tornado planes, in the RAF, were modified by the F.3 interceptor fighter, GR.4 fighter-bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, were removed from service earlier this year. As a result of this action, caused both by financial reasons and by the obsolescence of the fleet, the British Air Force remained with 119 fighters listed on the list - 102 Eurofighter Typhoon FGR.4 (it should be clarified that 22 training and combat aircraft are not included in this list ) and 17 F-35В "Lightning-2". At the same time, out of these 17 new 8 aircraft are constantly in the USA, they are used there for training pilots, and the RAF cannot count on them in combat operations or combat duty.
Situation on 2007 and 2019 years
The comparison is not in favor of the present.
While just recently, in 2007, 210 fighters were in service, the main aircraft was the Tornado, but the first Typhoons, the 32 aircraft, appeared (again, without regard to combat training vehicles). There were also the last Jaguar fighter-bombers, but already in 2008 this simple and reliable car was taken off, as they had already said goodbye to the land variants of the Harrier short-takeoff and landing.
At the same time, the command of the Air Force and the Defense Ministry of Britain declare that the difference in the numbers of aircraft does not correspond to the difference in capabilities, recalling that the current aircraft have great capabilities, and believe that the current number is sufficient for them. Of course, this is nothing more than a good mine in a bad game and bad maps. And Lightning itself, in general, is not just not a masterpiece, but one big endless problem, and even the level of the 5 generation corresponds to avionics and the possibility of internal placement of a limited set of weapons. “Typhoon” only in the last series turned into something similar to what customers and creators saw in it many years ago. But not all planes of this type are reduced to the technical appearance of the latest series. And the reliability of the "Typhoon", that "Lightning" is such that this fleet of a hundred and a few fighters can be easily divided into two. But the author of the article in the Daily Mail prefers not to talk about this.
RAF Combat Strength Comparison on 1989, 2007 and 2019 Years
He, however, refers to the recent past. At the end of the Cold War, in 1989 g ,. The RAF list consisted of 850 fighters and strike vehicles in service. Of these, about 400 were Tornadoes (mostly F.1 and GR.1), about a hundred more American-made Phantom fighters, more than a hundred Jaguars, more than 170 Harriers (modifications of GR.3), and more fifty Bukanir bombers. The author does not let up and refers to the times of the Second World War, when the British industry produced more than 35 thousand different fighters, in particular, "Spitfires" (which they could be proud of) and "Hurricanes" (which it would be better not to recall) . But why compare piston aircraft and wartime with modernity? Here is an obvious search.
Glorious story
If we turn to history, the Royal Flying Corps (Royal Flying Corps, RFC) with a whole "air battalion" composed of 1912 in April. It happened after the successful actions of the Italians against the Turks in the autumn of 1911 using aircraft in these operations. Although much more material for reflection was provided by the First Balkan War that happened in the fall of 1912, in which Russian volunteer pilots also participated. By the beginning of World War I, the RFC consisted of 5 squadrons and numbered 63 machines, far behind the leaders, among which were Germany and Russia, which had air fleets in more than 200 aircraft each. At the same time, the British could well become the first owners of fighter aircraft - such an aircraft was created as an experimental Vickers firm as early as 1912-1913, but inertia of thinking won out.
RFC Officer at his Sopwick Snipe, World War I
Realizing the value of aviation during the war, the British, thanks to the developed industry, quickly became leaders. When in 1918 the RFC became the RAF and the first Air Force in the world as an independent Air Force, and not just a “flying appendage” of the army or fleet, like many countries had in World War II (for example, the Americans and the Japanese). Then there were already 150 squadrons and 3300 aircraft in the RAF, and these were the largest air forces in the world at that time. However, the RAF also included more than 20000 aircraft - there were such times.
RAF airfield in 1939
The famous "Spitfire" needs no introduction. In the photo, most likely, the aircraft modification Mk.V
After World War II and the transition to jet aircraft, the number of RAFs was continuously decreasing. If you look at the staff, then with 300 thous. by the end of 50-s decreased to 150 thousand, and by 1985 and to 90 thousand, and at the end of 90-x - and to 50 thousand people. Accordingly, the fleet also decreased.
It may not be any better.
At the same time, Adams rightly draws attention to the fact that the Typhoon deliveries did not have time to cut out the old types of aircraft, in particular, the Tornado, and the situation with the F-35B supplies would be even worse. 138 aircraft of this type have been ordered, but even the first batch of 48 aircraft will not be delivered fully until 2024, costing at least 9 billion pounds. At the same time, even the new "Typhoons" were already partially cut by the British - for financial reasons and technical (modernization was either difficult and expensive or even impossible), they were already removed from service and sent for recycling of the XRUMX "Tranche-16" ( first series). Who knows, all of a sudden, waiting for the Lightnings to decide to cut the part of Tranche-1? And then the promises of the MO leadership that "the park will fall a little more, and then even grow up," will not cost the paper on which they can be printed.
Of course, the British are not the only ones who drastically reduced their air forces over the 90s and the new millennium. They reduced everything and at times - both the Americans, and the Chinese, and we, but there is nothing to say about European NATO. In the “old evronatovtsy” the state did not disintegrate into parts, and looking at the evolution of their armed forces, one cannot say so. But the British have always been a country with ambitions, and had the opportunity, and now there are, in fact, only ambitions. Even if F-35B (which is objectively worse than the other two options, for obvious reasons) would justify those advertising tales that manufacturers tell about it, it cannot be in many places at the same time. And when your air force is weaker at times than, say, Turkish - well, what ambitions can there be? More precisely, ambitions can be - with the implementation of problems arise. One "phantom pain" for the lost power and remains. It is strange that for the time being the poor state of the national armed forces of Great Britain has not blamed Russia and Putin personally V.V. Moreover, the slogan "the British Armed Forces never lived as badly as under Putin" and you would not call a lie. And really, never. But if someone like Boris Johnson or an IQ-like character becomes the prime minister, then we may not hear that.
- Ya. Vyatkin, especially for "Military Review"
- Daily Mail Online
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