One of the three Musketeers in Europe, the "Typhoon" fighter, because there is no phased array radar AESA, has been mixed up in recent years, and the big customer Saudi Arabia said that if there is no AESA, there will be no follow-up order; the german sales to India have also been taken by the French "Rafale", and the JAS-39E in Saab, Sweden, has also received orders from Brazil.
Forced to be helpless, the four European countries finally equipped the "Typhoon" with an active phased array AESA, in fact, at this time, the "Typhoon" can use Europe's proud "Meteor" medium- and long-range air-to-air missiles.
On October 15, the Kuwaiti Air Force received two Typhoon fighters from the Casella Aircraft Factory of the Leonardo Group in Italy, the first delivery of a 28-aircraft procurement contract between Kosovo and Italy in 2016.
The €7,957 million ($9.3 billion) deal, which procures 22 single-seaters and six two-seaters, includes upgrades to the infrastructure of the Kuwaiti air base, training centers for personnel training, spare parts, weapons and three years of after-sales service.
This is the first time that Italy has exported typhoon fighters, after the "typhoon" exports to Saudi Arabia, Oman, qatar are all orders taken by the British BAE system company, and the promotion of "typhoon" to India is Germany.
"Typhoon" production line in Germany
The Typhoon fighter is jointly developed by Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy, its production line is also set up in each of the four countries, and the fuselage parts are also produced by the four countries, the British BAE is responsible for the production of the front fuselage, cockpit cover, tail wing, flap aileron and part of the rear fuselage, accounting for 37%; the German DASA is responsible for the production of the main body, accounting for 29%; the Italian Aeritalia is responsible for the left wing, the flap aileron and part of the rear fuselage, accounting for 19.5%; the Spanish CASA company is responsible for the right wing and the leading edge slit, accounting for 14%.
The production of the EJ200 engine of the Rolls-Royce company, which is well known as the Typhoon fighter, is also responsible for the turbo engine alliance Turbo-Union Limited, which is composed of these four countries.
Radar electronics were also developed by the European Radar Group formed by the Four Nations Consortium and led by SELEX Galileo, a subsidiary of the Italian company Finmeccanica.
Therefore, these four countries all have the right to sell "typhoons", and whoever negotiates the general contracting has profits to be made.
"Catcher-E" AESA radar
Kuwait's purchase of the "Typhoon" is the highest level of configuration in this type of fighter, is the first batch of aircraft equipped with the "Captor" E-Scan active phased array radar, all other "Typhoons" are still "Catcher" pulse Doppler radar, the old "Catcher" is based on the British "Blue Female Fox" radar, in the current era, the same kind of American F-15/16, F/A-18E/F, China J-10B/C, J-16, Russian Su-35, French "Rafale", Sweden JAS-39E and others have replaced the active/passive phased array, and then do not catch up, and are driven out of the international market in minutes.
The reason why the radar is slow, in fact, can also see the weakness of the old Europeans, if they talk about their own needs, they are not in a hurry at all.
But have to do business ah, no upgrade can not be mixed, before the high overlooking Russia and China airborne electronic equipment, in the 80s of the last century, J-7M adopted the "air patrol" 7M radar rangefinder imported from the United Kingdom, it is a big step forward, Pakistan purchased J-7P installation is Italy's "Grifio-7" type single-pulse radar, to the 90s The Chinese Air Force introduced su-27, actually N001 flip card antenna radar, now AESA are almost cabbage by China.
The "Catcher-E" AESA active phased array radar used by Typhoon was developed by the European Radar Group and led by SELEX Galileo, a subsidiary of the Italian company Finmecanica, and began development in 2007. On technology, the old Europe these still have a set, "Catcher-E" radar do not look a little late, but it uses SELEX Salex Electronic Systems "swash plate reset" technology, by turning the antenna to obtain a wider scanning range, the field of view is said to reach 200 degrees, much larger than the current active phased array radar of other fighters 90 degrees field of view, the search airspace is broader.
The nose space of the "Typhoon" is also relatively large, and the TR components of the "Catcher-E" are more than 1000 (1500 according to the data), which is 20% more than the F/A-18E/F and F-35 radars, and 40% more than the RBE2 radar of the French "Rafale", with a considerable range and resolution.
The radar has the mapping function of synthetic aperture radar, has electronic defense capabilities, and also significantly increases the air-to-air and ground-to-ground detection distance.
Typhoon Kuwait will also equip the Sniper Advanced Sighting Pod (ATP) in Loma, USA, for a precision targeting, surveillance, reconnaissance (NTISR) mission, which is the first time Typhoon has mounted such a pod.
In addition, it will also be equipped with acmi P5 combat training pods, with real-time air-to-air, air-to-ground weapon simulation and monitoring functions, through the remote data link of the fighter training information sent to the ground control station in real time, but also between the fighters to transmit time, space, positioning information.
Model of a "typhoon" at the Langkawi Air Show 2017
The Kuwaiti Typhoon also integrated new weapons and equipment, including ASRAAM short-range combat missiles, Meteor medium and long-range air-to-air missiles, Storm Shadow cruise missiles, Sulfur Stone air-to-ground missiles, extended-range MARTE anti-ship missiles, etc., and can also carry US-made AIM-120 and GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munitions.
The "Typhoon" mounting capacity is commendable, don't look at the aircraft is not big, but there are actually 13 plug-in points, comparable to a larger level of fighters.
Typhoon tough mounting capacity
Of course, the world into the era of stealth is too fierce, "Typhoon" no matter how the whole is also the previous generation of fighters, originally, "Typhoon" brother four and France "Gust" and Sweden "Gripen" this European three musketeers pondered, the new century just entered the fighter can always deal with a twenty or thirty years, stealth five generations slowly engaged, did not expect to be thrown away by the United States, China and Russia in an instant, immediately launched research and development, there is insufficient spare energy, each of the original needs are limited, "Typhoon" Britain ordered 232 aircraft, Germany ordered 140 aircraft, Italy 121 aircraft, Spain 87 aircraft The Rafale French Navy and Air Force combined had less than 300 aircraft purchased; the JAS-39 Swedish Air Force used 200 aircraft for its own use. The research and development of the fifth generation machine is more expensive, even if it takes ten years to make it, it may not be able to equip much, and the export market is definitely narrower and more difficult than the European three musketeers.
So Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, the Swedish partnership, France, Germany, Spain partnership, all claim to skip five generations to engage in six generations, live to tear the European defense integration dream in half, some people say that for the sake of money, it may eventually have to be combined, but from the experience of the last partnership with European fighters, this is not very easy, not to mention that the United Kingdom is still Brexit.
From the actual needs of European countries to save provinces, to the prospect of exports is even less optimistic, the sixth generation of European aircraft is likely to be difficult to produce, and the current three musketeers are a touch of sunset. N